| THE AWARD |
| CATEGORIES |
| REGISTRATION |
| SUBMIT YOUR WORK |
| ENTRY INSTRUCTIONS |
| TERMS & CONDITIONS |
| PUBLICATIONS |
| DATES & FEES |
| METHODOLOGY |
| CONTACT |
| WINNERS |
| PRESS ROOM |
| GET INVOLVED |
| DESIGN PRIZE |
| DESIGN STORE |
| THE AWARD | JURY | CATEGORIES | REGISTRATION | PRESS | WINNERS | PUBLICATIONS | ENTRY INSTRUCTIONS |
Tao Rocking Chair by Hsu-Hung Huang |
Home > Winners > Design #139815 >Interview |
 |
|
FS: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
HH: Inspired by the craft of Tao, a Taiwan indigenous people, the designer has integrated their maritime culture into furniture design. Their knowledge and skills strongly represent Taiwan’s unique oceanic culture and spirit. By combining traditional and contemporary methods, this furniture design hopes to inform people of the culture of Taiwan’s indigenous people.
FS: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
HH: Currently in Taiwan certain designers and consumers emulate global trends and fads with no thought to how it matches their lives. As a result, many opportunities to communicate Taiwan’s unique culture are being lost. There are sixteen indigenous groups in Taiwan who have various legends, crafts, and ceremonies. Although they have a precious culture, they are threatened to disappear due to issues such as lack of developments and small population. As time passes, people could ignore indigenous culture. To deal with this issue, I hoped to communicate Taiwan’s culture to the world via this project. Inspired by the craft of Tao, a Taiwan indigenous people, I have integrated their boat culture into furniture design. Their knowledge and skills strongly represent Taiwan ‘s unique marine culture and spirit. By combining traditional with contemporary methods, this project hopes to inform people of the culture of Taiwan’s indigenous people.
FS: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
HH: In the future, I intend to continue enlightening people about Taiwan's unique culture through more design works.
FS: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
HH: The project started in May 2017 in London and finished in September 2017 in London, and was exhibited at Viaduct Showroom London, Goldsmith University London and Eslite Bookstore Taiwan in July 2018 and 2019.
FS: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?
HH: I plan to extend the series of Tao rocking chairs and hoped to cooperate with some residents of the indigenous community and produce some design works in a small number of diversified ways. Through production cooperation, technology transfer, etc., aesthetic value and product quality can be improved. Also, expanding the consumer market of contemporary indigenous products and furniture is quite potential.
FS: What made you design this particular type of work?
HH: I feel that is the sense of mission for saving cultural heritage.
FS: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?
HH: In Taiwan, I had an opportunity to understand Tao people’s wisdom; also, I attempted to learn the boat-building technique and marine knowledge from a Tao person. I still remember that Mi Sra Ko Sirman, an indigenous craftsman told me that if people do not regard the canoe as a real friend, they wouldn’t treasure a canoe very well.
FS: Who is the target customer for his design?
HH: Customers targeted include cultural workers, art keepers, the government, and so forth.
FS: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
HH: To my mind, it is my goal that the design works can reflect the unique value of Taiwan culture. To explain it, I am strongly committed to promoting Taiwan's marine culture and spirit in this world. Also, I used cultural elements to create this fascinating and elegant furniture.
FS: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
HH: Tao rocking chair, the name comes from the indigenous people who live on Orchid Island in eastern Taiwan. Also, the Tao people are well-known for their traditional canoe craftsmanship. Inspired by the crafts of Tao, I integrated their boat-building craftsmanship into a piece of furniture. Furthermore, I hoped to transfer the experience of rowing the Tao canoe into the joyfulness of swinging in a rocking chair. Ultimately, the project explored the preservation of intangible cultural heritage and translated it into stylish and elegant artwork through contemporary design methods.
FS: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
HH: The main digital tools are CAD and CNC. Also, I utilized traditional boat-building methods and tools like clamps, axes, saws and mallets.
FS: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
HH: Taiwan is a picturesque and mountainous island on the Pacific Ocean and it demonstrates tremendous diversity in its cultural heritage. Especially, indigenous nations who have various legends, crafts, and ceremonies strongly represent Taiwan’s unique marine culture and spirit. To preserve this precious and traditional culture, I attempted to embed spiritual and societal knowledge and practices into material design.
FS: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?
HH: At the 3D studio of Kingston University, serval technicians and experts assisted me to deal with some specialized issues like CNC cutting and wooden manufacturing techniques. They provided relevant skills and plenty of advice to me. These experiences and suggestions are quite useful to produce Tao Rocking Chair.
FS: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
HH: The purpose of this program is to utilize the traditional approach of boat-building to make furniture. Hence, the method of manufacturing should follow the Tao people’s example; also, solid timbers should be chosen. Nevertheless, when I conducted quite a few experiments, I discovered that natural deformation and warping would appear because of different cutting methods and growth characteristics. To deal with this concern, firstly, to cut various wooden components down, CAD and CNC were utilized. The axis of wooden components followed the wood grains since plants’ fabric affects the strength of materials and mechanics remarkably; also, I laminated a timber board and glued these wooden components together. Further, I divided the wood parts into three boards. In the middle part, a thicker and higher dense timber board was used. On both sides, thinner and lighter timber boards were used. Thus, the mid wood board can support the wood boards on both sides and this approach can make the structure stronger. This way is similar to the method of Tao canoe making. Using different characteristics and pieces of wood boards can make the rocking chair’s structure stable and durable.
FS: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?
HH: Through this program, I combined design approaches with my research to develop a solid culturally memetic design trend and communicate Taiwan’s culture to the world. That is to say, fieldwork, interviews, and publications helped me better understand Taiwan's indigenous culture. To name only a few, I studied a book named Culture and Art of the Formosan Aborigines (Liu, Qi-Wei, 2002). The artist, Liu, Qi-Wei systematically described Taiwan's indigenous culture including social organizations, customs, religions, arts, myths and legends and so on. So that, I was able to have a cultural holistic understanding of Taiwan's indigenous culture and art. Also, the author hoped to convey the cultural image to readers to assist them to respect Taiwan's indigenous culture.
FS: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
HH: Mirroring the traditional boat building method, multiple wooden compartments were joined together by tenons and mortises; additionally, the mechanical characteristics of various wood species are considered to make the rocking chair the distinctive piece that it is. Thus, the structure of the furniture is more durable in resisting deformation significantly against changes in environmental humidity. By applying the hand-rubbed Danish oil finish, this method provides a natural and original wood texture to the furniture. Ultimately, by combining traditional craft with contemporary fabrication, an elegant and simple rocking chair was made.
FS: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
HH: Regarding this design program, I hoped to concentrate on globalization and localization design issues originally. From my point of view, acquiring A’ design award competition not only is an honour but also is communication with other people all over the world. More exactly, on this platform, I would be able to interact with designers from different cultural backgrounds to exchange ideas and share the practical challenges of my past work experience.
FS: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
HH: Via this project, I realized that designing not only requires sensitivity to beauty but the consideration of the strategies behind using aesthetics. When I incorporated these two aspects into the creative process, I was able to solve the certain social issue efficiently while also reflecting on my design philosophy.
FS: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
HH: Many thanks, that’s all I have to say.
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A' Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
| SOCIAL |
| + Add to Likes / Favorites | Send to My Email | Comment | View Press-Release | Translations |
