Introduction

A design competition is one of the essential topics for designers. The architectural industry can track it back to 448 BC for the Acropolis of Athens as the origins of competition. The incredible landmark in Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, was also the result of competition. In the modern design era, design competition played a significant role in changing design’s social awareness for avant-garde designers such as Le Corbusier (Swiss-French architect), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (German-American architect), and many others. Most of the time, it shows how glorious the winning designers are and only features bright-side. However, Tadao Ando, Pritzker Award-winning Japanese architect, mentioned that most of his competition challenges failed in one of his books. In short, it is not easy to win the competition. However, we all can learn from participating in each competition, and sometimes it can change your life. I like to share some experiences through a design competition and how these experiences influence my design career in this essay.

One competition a month

During my undergraduate study in Japan, the knowledge learned from the courses was relatively fundamental and practical, including hand-drawing, model making, and computer rendering. However, my graduate school offered a different learning experience, which was more philosophical and experimental. The time in graduate school was such a thrill-full to test the limit and improve the skill of design and presentation. I formed a partnership with Ming-ni Chan to participate in design competitions worldwide, even during the semester break. After graduating from the master’s program, I started to work in New York City as an architectural designer. It was exciting to be a part of a professional society and work on actual projects. However, a missing school life made me keep joining design competitions after my work. Afterward, working on the design competition became a part of the lifestyle. Every month, we have worked on different competitions, one from the other. However, there was no glorious result from participation most of the time. The first winning competition was the ACADIA 2006 New Media School competition. Later this project received the Merit Award from the Far Eastern International Digital Architectural Design Award in 2008. On the other hand, it was countless how many losses we had from the competition.

Picture 01: FabLab House (Photo by IaaC)

Moving back to Asia and Digital Fabrication projects

After moving back to Asia from Spain, we initially settled in Tokyo to start our design practice in 2010. However, while actively working on several projects in Japan and Taiwan, we relocated to Taiwan in 2013. One of the reasons was that Taiwan had more opportunities to employ the experience we acquired in the U.S and Spain, such as digital fabrication and crafting projects. The knowledge and experience from FabLab house motivated us to apply digital modeling and fabrication to our design projects. We worked on several projects, including display stand design, furniture, and indoor pavilion with a similar approach. The Lightscape Pavilion, installed on the top of Treasure Hill Artist Village, Taipei, was a temporary art installation for Taipei Lantern Festival in 2013 [Picture 03]. We tried to combine digital fabrication with traditional crafting material in this project. The outcome was an astonishing success. Lightscape Pavilion received several international awards, including Taiwan Interior Design Award, Golden A’Design Award, and LIT Lighting Design Award. We also experimented with other types of material, such as corrugated cardboard sheets. Spiral Stool, self-assembly flat-pack furniture, was developed with C-Hub of National Chang Kung University and Yuen Foong Yu Tainan Creativity Center [Picture 04]. This minimum yet functional design received Golden Pin Best Award, Platinum A’Design Award, Golden European Product Design Award, and Bronze IDA Award. We believe each effort leads to another step of success and design awards always encourage us to do so.

Picture 02: Lightscape Pavilion (Photo by Treasure Hill Artist Village)

Picture 03: Spiral Stool (Photo by MisoSoupDesign)

Orchid House and Solar Decathlon Europe 2014

The other aim of returning to Asia was to share our experience and knowledge with the younger generation. We thought the experience from SDE 2010 was incredibly precious. Therefore, we were fortunate to have the chance to collaborate with National Yang-Ming Chiao Tung University, Graduate Institute of Architecture, to join another edition of SDE. Prof. C. David Tseng and the Institute initiated the Orchid House project [Picture 04]. Under the direction of Prof. Shu-Chang Kung, we took 30 students to Versalles, France, to compete in the SDE 2014. One of the most challenging projects was to deliver the solar house prototype from Taiwan to France and assemble all the parts within ten days prior to the competition. Along with all the difficulties, we won several awards, including first place Urban design, transportation & affordability, second place Innovation, third place Energy efficiency. As the team faculty advisor, I learned the challenge of working with students to develop a project and implement it into their curriculum. SDE 2014 was also the turning point of my teaching career. It helped me establish the pedagogical theory in many of my courses at National Taiwan Normal University, Department of Design.

Picture 04: Orchid House (Photo by SDE2014)

Conclusion

After looking back on my past two decades’ career, it is impressive how design competitions play essential roles. Last year, we joined the Design Movement on Campus project, initiated by Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI). We needed to compete with other designers during the proposal phase to improve the interior space of schools. As a result, we completed the Feng-Dong Junior High School project, which renovated a 50-year old martial arts training space into an assembly hall [Picture 05]. This project is a milestone of our design practice, which combines technology, sustainability, and culture into a design outcome. We always try to implement these criteria into our project. However, there are many difficulties to overcome to have a successful project. It was such a rewarding moment when we received the 2021 Taiwan Interior Design Award Special Jury Award and Taiwan Interior New Talent Award with this project. The past competition experience taught me; first, I need to try; second, I must keep trying; and third, do not miss the precious opportunity. I hope you can encounter life-changing opportunities. The world of design is broad and deep. Shape your skill and sense to grab them!

Picture 05: Feng Dong Junior High School (Photo by MisoSoupDesign)