2009 Taipei Industrial Design Award a Prelude to Upcoming Horticultural Show

Taipei mayor L.B. Hau

Taipei has outbid 18 other cities in 18 countries to host the world's key design event-the IDA Congress (held every six years) in 2011, when the capital of Taiwan wishes to convey to the global design community that the island has Chuck Yeager's "The Right Stuff." In other words, Taipei has in its design portfolio, not only a combination of seed ingredients in fashions, high technology, and enviable living standards, but also, more importantly, a cluster of many talented designers.

Besides promoting the development of the service industry, a sign of a city that is trying to move away from secondary industries to tertiary ones to move up the ladder of economic maturity and sophistication, while upgrading the city's designs and tastes, the Taipei Municipal Government has been holding design competitions and international forums. This not only helps to breed creative designs with high potential for commercial applications and practicality, but also encourages intellectual stimulation as students compete against professionals, a valuable experience that is often unavailable on even the most hallowed campuses.

Perhaps as a prelude to the IDA Congress in 2011, and specifically the 2010 Taipei International Garden and Horticultural Expo, Taipei mayor L.B. Hau honored the winners of the 2009 Taipei Industrial Design Award at the ceremony held at city hall on October 13. The mayor hopes that Taiwan will surpass Northern Europe to become the capital of creativity and innovation, raising "Made in Taiwan" to new heights globally, according to the Secretariat of Taipei City website.

Organized by the Department of Economic Development and Taiwan Design Center, the 2009 TIDA attracted 943 entries - up by half compared with 2008's 648 entries. Befitting the upcoming horticultural exhibition, the theme of the 2009 TIDA is "blossom."

Many of the award-winners at the 2009 TIDA did not merely design works to be trophies, many of which hold potential to be commercialized as ornaments for the city, even improve the art of hobby gardeners, elevate aesthetic appeal and functionality of otherwise mundane items, with some possibly turned into souvenirs to bring joy to locals and foreign visitors in 2010 in Taipei.

The second version of the TIDA saw 15 awards given, including Golds, Silvers, Bronzes and Excellent awards, as well as two sponsors' awards.

Winners in Brief

Prize: Gold Award

Product: Blossom of the City

Designer: J.J. Chou and W.K. Yeh

A diorama made of metal foil rolled inside a small, transparent glass vessel, this work is a miniaturization of all the major landmarks of Taipei, which, when rolled, shows a viewer familiar, sweet memories, not in panorama, but of distinctive shapes.

Prize: Silver Award

Product: HydrangeAudio

Designer: Y.H. Shen

Tapping the magical powers to soothe people's minds, amid the urban bustle, with sound and floral fragrance, this design takes the form of a blossoming hydrangea, which may be placed on a desk or dining table. In fact, it is a stereo speaker capable of releasing natural sound and floral fragrance, with dedicated touch-controls on stem-like stand.

Prize: Silver Award

Product: Blossom of Gift

Designer: J.J. Chou and W.K. Yeh

Despite bouquets being desirable gifts on many occasions, giving flowers often creates hassles for receivers, with a vase perhaps needed and cellophane film to be torn. This innovative design could revolutionize the flower-vase market because the rubber vase is integrated into the bouquet package. Inspired by the flower petal and blooming, the designers' brainchild enables receivers to easily turn the rubber part into a beautiful, convenient vase, which can be applied with graphics to achieve various effects.

Prize: Bronze Award

Product: Sunflower

Designer: Y.S. Chung

The Sunflower is an insulated, multifunctional pad or coaster, featuring vibrantly blossoming petals. Made of heat-resistant silicon to avoid scratching table surfaces and for easy cleaning, the Sunflower's size and shape is easily adjusted to hold cups, plates, pots etc.

Prize: Bronze Award

Product: Vase Meets Flower

Designer: C.T. Ho

Without using high-tech, eye-catching colors, or other distracting designs, the designer focuses on enabling users to concentrate on the plants and flowers, not the vase. The upper vase features petal elements, while the taller and shorter vases create layers of light through reflectance, like that from blooming flowers; while every vase can be vertically and horizontally installed onto the acrylic board.

Prize: Excellent Award

Product: Stretching

Designer: K.Y. Wu

Utilizing minimalist design-adopting a single part in different sizes-the designer creates a chair that offers good ergonomics that conveys a visual effect of being ever-stretched.

Prize: Excellent Award

Product: Pedestrian Floor Tile

Designer: J.M. Hsieh

The Pedestrian Floor Tile is a modularized system of direction-indicators that makes life easier for pedestrians. With the indicators easily inserted into sidewalk tiles, this modular system clearly, conveniently shows pedestrians distance to destinations, directions to toilets, bus stations, trash cans, convenience stores and many others.

Prize: Excellent Award

Product: Blooming

Designer: C.Y. Shieh and J.H. Lin

The "Blooming" is a candelabrum with design concept inspired by the art of origami. A paper-cut symbol in the center of the candelabrum allows a candle to burn, with the flame being a floral bud and the hot wax dripping down into the concavity of the holder, which also colors the paper-cut form.

Prize: Excellent Award

Product: Dew Drop

Designer: T.C. Wu

The Dew Drop is clearly designed to please the hobby than dedicated horticulturalist: this leaf-shaped electronic plant watering device cleverly draws ambient moisture to condense into water for trouble-free watering. Simply insert the Dew Drop into the soil of any flowerpot, plug the unit into a wall outlet, and the intelligent device extracts about 20cc of water from the air per hour to keep plants alive. The perfect helper for horticulturalists who are often away.

Prize: Excellent Award

Product: Newcode Design

Designer: Y.L. Lee

Another smart design as conversation piece, this innovative ice tray, incorporating traditional Chinese paper-cut symbols, makes ice cubes with blooming flowers inside, enabling users to see translucent flowers floating in a cup of beverage on a summer afternoon to please the senses.

Prize: Excellent Award

Product: Brewing

Designer: Y.S. Chen

Apparently the designer's English naming skills are a tad shy of his industrial design prowess, for Brewing, typically a process for slowly making drinks etc., is a touch-control table lamp. Touch it to see the bud-shaped lampshade turn into a blooming flower that emits light from its core, with such nature-evocative process expected to refresh urban residents.

Prize: Excellent Award

Product: Butterfly & Flower

Designer: W.M. Chen

A seemingly mundane design with potentially excellent commercial potential, the Butterfly & Flower is a series of simple but ingenious clothes pegs with a dual purpose: when clipped on a clothesline, they don't look like mere hardware but flowers and butterflies perched on freshly washed clothes, livening the mundane chore of laundry.

Prize: Excellent Award

Product: Colorful

Designer: S.J. Lin and K.T. Chen

Using ordinary technology to enhance safety, the designers of Colorful builds sidewalk tiles with photo-sensitive materials, enabling chromatic-variation according to changing ultraviolet levels to warn of harmful UV, or, adopt hydro-sensitive ingredients to show enlarged patterns to warn of wet floors during rains. This is a clever, aesthetic way to show high UV level with colorful flowers on sunny days or falling petals when it rains.

Prize: Sponsor's Award

Product: Flower Calendar

Designer: T.H. Hung and M.H. Lee

A dual-function work, the Flower Calendar allows users to turn beautiful flowers into calendars, adding fun to daily routines, or later, when a calendar is expired, turn beautiful memories into bookmarks.

Prize: Sponsor's Award

Product: Spring on Stones

Designer: W.H. Chang

Using a green approach to create an LED lamp, the designer adopts bamboo and LEDs to build an LED lamp featuring craftsmanship, recycling of a ubiquitous plant, and energy-efficiency.