Yii exhibition - Interior Design Blog

Among the beautifully made pieces were a carved driftwood and lacquer cabinet designed by Po-Ching Liao, a series of brick vessels from the Brick Plan collection by designer Rock Wang (shown above and below), bamboo stools designed by Yu-Jui Chou, and a re-imagining of a low-cost lamp as a heavenly, gilded temple roof by Jian-an Su. Now that so much of the world's material culture is not only created but also consumed in the region it has become a concern for many designers and companies. The Brick Plan products by Rock Wang use standard red bricks, which are one of the symbols of Taiwanese culture. Starting with a solid block of red brick, Wang uses industrial tools to carve out the form of his products. This is not helped by the fact that what we think of as Western design was so heavily influenced by Japanese craft well before the pioneer modernists picked up the themes of elemental form and truth to materials in Industrial Design. In another version, Wang let silk worms nest on the piece to create a natural, silky surface Having visited the Institute recently, I had seen and been impressed by some of the work, but this exhibition really made an impact with the range of processes, the clarity of thinking and the exceptional detailing. It is part of a series that uses bamboo weaving to create precise forms The output of Yii doesn't indicate that we will be seeing PCs made out of brick or ceramic mobile phones in the near future. For those designers involved in the project, it has given them a direct, tangible link to the island's heritage, which could not be learned through reading, or even looking.