04 - Erin + Amelia + Ai

9/2/26~9/5/26

Day 11 - NCKU campus 

For September 2nd, we all met up at 9am in the amazing Star Hostel hotel lobby one last time before our departure to Tainan. While the bus ride took around an hour and a half to two hours, many of us slept on the bus, making it a really quick trip. 

When we arrived in Tainan, we immediately headed to the NCKU campus and started our orientation and introduction to the project. Since we had already met most of the NCKU partnering students already, it went by really quickly and smoothly. 

As we proceeded to the campus tour, we each split off into small groups and headed to various locations of the NCKU campus. We first started off with Dacheng Hall in which the Industrial Design department was located. The building reminded us of the historical TDRI architecture, having the building filled with unique pillars and long hallways. Outside of Decheng Hall was a huge tree that one of the NCKU students had mentioned as being one of the major symbols of NCKU. Afterwards, we headed to the Industrial Design department’s workshop space which consisted of an entire building dedicated to the department. Many of the design students from UW really envied their building since the design space at NCKU had so many working spaces and various rooms where they could work on their own projects with materials to work with. Overall the entire NCKU campus was very pretty with many forms of nature surrounding the perimeter and art works scattered throughout the area. It was very fun and cool to see the entire campus where we will be working for the next week. 

Campus tour!

Design workshop space

Day 12 - Circular economy workshop

On Thursday, September 3rd the class gathered for a 3 hour workshop on circular economy and design. The lecturer broke down the climate crisis into different types of environmental pressure, and talked about the different ways society uses and abuses Earth’s natural resources. We walked through typical lifecycles of things like coffee and phones, both incredibly common but harmful in the way they are made, distributed, and disposed of. By inspecting each part of the products’ linear lifecycle, we identified points of inefficiency and waste. 

We also looked at successful cases of businesses that achieved circular design, meaning product or service lifecycles where material is repaired, maintained, recycled, or repurposed as much as possible. Case studies included YouBike and Fairphone. Using a butterfly chart, students could see how materials in these businesses were maintained and recycled rather than thrown out, creating a successful, sustainable economy.

Circular Economy Workshop activities

Group brainstorming tools

Day 13 - Free day

Day thirteen was our second ever free day of the study abroad trip. Many of us split off into small friend groups and enjoyed sightseeing in Tainan! 

Day 14 - Indigo dye 

Our class took a short walk, along with the NCKU students, to the History Relics Hall, where we got to have an indigo dyeing workshop! The presentation was very engaging, with snack rewards of animal shaped crackers for the students who correctly answered the questions. During this, we learned about the differences between the optical illusions of color, which are a perception of wavelengths of light we see, vs chemical color, which is actual pigment. I was really interested in the history of blue paint, and was intrigued to gain more knowledge about the value of it in art and culture before our time. After the lecture, we each got to dye our own bandana’s. It was so much fun!! Each student had a completely unique design, and my favorite part was to watch the green dye oxidize and turn blue. Below, you can see some examples of our work, and the process too.

Indigo dye memories!