Blog #1

One of the things I noticed during my trip to Taiwan was the natural traditional and modern connection. Walking through the different parts of the city, I was able to see a blend of older buildings and designs either seamlessly build into newer ones, or mixed together into a juxtaposition of new and old. In Da Dao Chen, there is old marketplace style vendors/storefronts that sit in between newer modern clothing stores and western influenced coffee shops. 

Back home the newer and older parts of the city are much more separate. Whereas in Taiwan, the traditional elements are still part of the everyday environment while the city continues to develop and modernize. It’s less about leaving the old behind and instead growing with it. It truly changes the mindset of design and how history and tradition can be respected without feeling stuck in the past. Culture/tradition and modernization doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive.

Above is an image of the in between space of an older style building in Taiwan. This space was between the storefront and the warehouse in the back. Where when you looked up there was rafter space, a glimpse into the second floor which typically houses the owners and a collection of other items. 

This image shows the older buildings and architecture in today’s modern culture, what we were able to walk through with the whole class and tour guide. 

I was interested in how this relationship could apply to smaller spaces. Seeing the way different spaces were designed made me think more about efficiency and how much can actually be achieved with limited amounts of space. Dot design was a great example of this, their space itself was a case study: every material and object was chosen with intention, and nothing felt like it was there just to fill room. Hearing the team talk about designing with limited resources in mind made me connect their approach back to what we’d just seen in Da Dao Chen. Sustainability, in their eyes, wasn’t only about materials, but about designing things that are meant to last and be reused rather than replaced, which was the buildings itself.  

In my opinion, these experiences, Da Dao Chen, Dot Design, and the NTU collaboration, ended up threading together more than I expected. Each one, in its own way, pushed back against the idea that moving forward means leaving something behind. I think that’s the lesson I’ll carry with me into the final project: good design doesn’t erase what came before it, it makes room for it.