01 – Maya + Alexa

 08.23

For day one of the program, we started off strong by meeting in the lobby of our hotel at 6pm and heading next door to enjoy a huge Taiwanese meal at Gugo Kitchen as coordinated for us by Kiki and Pacha. We got the chance to try an array of delicious foods native to Taiwan, such as (but not limited to) yam in plum sauce, tofu and seafood stew, and red dates.

08.24

Our first official day of the collaborative program with NTU began with our arrival at the NTU D-School around 9am, where we met with the students and ran through a series of ice breakers before beginning our official introductions. Our professors explained information about the D-School, our collaboration, and the design methods we would be using throughout the next week. After kicking off the workshop, we enjoyed a beautiful meal arranged for us by NTU staff while we continued to meet with NTU students!

In the afternoon, we split into groups and travelled to Dot Design for a brief workshop with the founder, Lance Han. We learned about Dot Design’s sustainability through their use of recycled materials and took a look at some of their most recent design projects.

At Dot Design!

Lastly, we headed to Dadaochen for a walking tour of the old street and its cultural importance. From a walk through of a giant fabric wholesale to understanding the meaning of the architectural choices made for each of the buildings along the street, we were immersed in the heritage of the area. Once completing our tour, students were able to explore the area for the rest of the evening. Many of us headed back along the street to check out Kuo’s Astral Bookshop, a beautiful three-story bookstore that had an entire section dedicated to books about design. Visiting night markets for a quick dinner and continuing to explore the nearby streets with NTU students was the most popular activity before heading back to the hotel to prepare for day three.

08.25

Day three started with a trip to the Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI), including a presentation, Q+A, and tour of the office spaces.

Just down the hall we got to visit the Miniwiz Trash Kitchen, an interactive workshop space focused on turning everyday trash into something functional. They did a presentation on the different types of plastic and how they are reducing waste, followed by a demonstration where we made sunglasses. Amelia picked out what plastic would be used, and Elden operated the machine that melted it all down. At the end she asked us a question about the benefits of modular design, and Katelyn gave a great insight, winning her the glasses we had collaborated to make!

Elden melting the plastic at Miniwiz

From our field trip we headed back to NTU to tour their maker spaces and work on ideating for our project. We broke into our groups and quietly pumped out as many ideas as possible to then later explain and sort. All the ideas were a great mix of Taiwanese culture, well being, and sustainability, with many creative solutions being shared. Many groups voted and narrowed down their ideas to just one or two so that they would be prepared for starting to work in the following days.

08.26

On Wednesday we took buses to Pinglin to see their tea gardens, known for their Baozhong tea. The road there was winding as we traveled away from the city and into the rolling green hills. There were many people with camouflaged cameras trying to photograph ospreys as we got closer to our destination. Our guide explained the tea drying process to us, and as we were waiting for the buses afterwards we saw many plates of tea leaves in the building.

From there we took the buses up to a viewpoint where you could see the beautiful greenery for miles and miles. There were people on the platform brewing tea and flying drones off the edge to get a better vantage point.

After a stop in Pinglin for lunch, we reconvened at the Pinglin Tea Museum for our final stop of the day. Here we learned about the tea drying process, history of tea in Taiwan, got to smell a variety of teas, and even got to taste some. It was a beautifully interactive experience with lots of fun things to see.

On our way back we met with our teams to finalize ideas and split up the work we will be doing before our final presentations!