Taipei: days 1-3

September 1-3, 2024

9/1 — Arrival + welcome dinner

9/2 — TDRI tour/presentation + trash kitchen + lunch + national palace museum + SCU meet

9/3 — Lecture 1 + project brief + lunch + Taiyuan Rd. + Dihua St. + NingXia night market

After months of anticipation, all of us are finally here in Taiwan! Today is day three of the program, and the past few days have been absolutely packed with new experiences and inspiration. Yesterday was our first full day in Taiwan, and we visited the Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI), the Trash Kitchen, the National Palace Museum, and met the Shih Chien University (SCU) students for the first time. Today, we got to spend more time with the SCU students and experienced Taipei at a more local level. We attended our first lecture from Professor Shikai, heard our design brief, gathered materials from Taiyuan Road, and went on a guided tour of Dihua Street. 

9/2

Taking a closer look at yesterday, we first took the MRT to TDRI. This subway ride was the first experience of the trip that I found very different and surprising compared to Seattle. Most of the MRT ride was above-ground, and we could see rolling hills of dense forest canopy in every direction. Although the population density of Taipei is almost three times that of Seattle, the ever-present backdrop of nature made the city feel less industrial. At TDRI, we toured the office space and got to experience their amazing ball-pit! As different researchers and the vice director of TDRI presented, I learned that all of them came from very diverse career backgrounds ranging from working abroad to integrating science and design. As someone who comes from a science background, I felt comforted knowing that the different backgrounds of the TDRI designers are what set them apart and gave them a different perspective. 

After the tour, we went downstairs to the Trash Kitchen which specializes in researching new ways to upcycle trash into new materials and products. Over the course of our visit, we watched bottle caps be heated, pressed, sanded, and assembled into a pair of sunglasses! This revamped my interest in the possibilities of new materials, and made me realize that I would love to work in a research environment like this! 

Our next stop was the National Palace Museum where we had a guided tour of the artifacts. My favorite pieces were the agate bowls! The bowls are so thin that they are mostly transparent, and I absolutely could not wrap my head around how they could’ve been carved out of a single stone. Other highlights of this visit were the pork rock and jadeite cabbage! 

The final stop of the program day was at VisionBase where we met the SCU architecture and design students. I really appreciated how welcoming the students and faculty were, and how eager they were to showcase their tools and projects! I definitely did not expect to be controlling a giant robot arm that night, but it was such a cool experience!

9/3 — Lecture 1 + project brief + lunch + Taiyuan Rd. + Dihua St. + NingXia night market

This morning, we attended our first lecture from Professor Shikai. As he took us through his projects such as his Ripple lamps for Lobmyer and his time spent making bronzes in China, my ideas on what design can be expanded. Professor Shikai’s experiments with repelling magnets stood out to my group as an example of taking something mundane, or something that we think we understand, but then expanding on it and experimenting with it from a new perspective. 

For lunch, Zong took us to a noodle place where we tried stinky tofu and duck blood. Stinky tofu has been redeemed for me now after having a bad one in the US, and I really liked the flavor of the duck blood! After lunch, we went to Taiyuan Road to look at the material shops and pick out interesting items to use in our design. The way the shops were organized made me feel like I was hunting for treasure, and made it even more exciting when I found something cool! We also toured DaDaoCheng’s Dihua Street and found the most beautiful book covers I’ve ever seen. Our last stop of the night was at the NingXia night market where we tried a ton of different fruits and got cat and capybara blind boxes. Most notably, I tried a wax apple and a custard apple! I really enjoyed talking with the vendors and getting to experience such a lively place with everyone. It feels like we’ve had weeks worth of experiences in Taiwan already, and I’m excited for what’s to come!