5% Design Action Lab
That day, sitting alone with Kevin at Qianjin Vintage Black Tea and sipping rich milk tea, we reunited thanks to the fate of the "Xinhua Homecoming Design Movement." Together, we brainstormed the "5% Design Action Kaohsiung Base," located on the first floor of the social housing opposite Qianjin Elementary School. We exchanged our work beliefs, and what impressed me most was his statement: "Design must walk with others. The influence left behind is perhaps the true incarnation that transcends material existence."
In 5% Design Action’s social initiatives across Taiwan—whether workshops, lectures, dialogues, or exhibitions—every tool implies that deep encounters between people often require only a well-arranged opportunity to spark natural sharing. The 5% Design Action Kaohsiung base continues this philosophy, allowing exchanges to expand lightly and effortlessly.
We concentrated the main design volume at the storefront entrance, shaping it into a wooden cabin. The remaining space is fully utilized as an exchange classroom accommodating 12 to 16 people. For larger events exceeding 30 people, we link with the "Hongdao Qianjin Good Living Room" to the north, forming a point-to-point spatial utilization. One side of the wooden cabin faces the city streets, while the other features a facade with a small yellow-dotted awning. This implies that designers, after brainstorming in the classroom, will carry their passion back into the dynamic city to engage with and stir society.
We can imagine this base as a "house-in-house" concept, or as a reversal of indoor and outdoor spaces that blurs material boundaries. A mobile cart with casters is hidden within the cabin, ready to be deployed when interaction with people on the street is needed. For this project, we collaborated with a professional carpentry team to create a composite custom cabinet using eco-friendly plywood as the main structure and LVL boards for the doors. By using wood grain as a natural surface texture, we cast aside the traditional impression that non-solid wood must be covered, guiding viewers to see the diverse raw textures of wood materials.
Looking at the blueprint of the 5% Design Action social design platform in Taiwan, the "Wu-Tai-Ju Design Action Lab" allows various teams—such as the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, the MOE’s University Social Responsibility Center, the Kaohsiung Agriculture Bureau, the Cancer Hope Foundation, the Tainan Enterprise Culture and Arts Foundation, the Carrefour Foundation, the Hongdao Senior Citizen’s Welfare Foundation, Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital, Chateau de Chine Hotel, M.ZONE, Phantoms Board Games, and southern universities—to share a physical space for exploring the possibilities of social innovation and cross-disciplinary cooperation.
They also hope that through this "southern expansion," they can balance the status quo of regional revitalization and entrepreneurship, which has historically been weighted towards the north. With more people joining the urban-rural renaissance, local culture can take root and create differentiation, thereby generating a more diverse local identity and establishing a regional collective memory.
That day, sitting alone with Kevin at Qianjin Vintage Black Tea and sipping rich milk tea, we reunited thanks to the fate of the "Xinhua Homecoming Design Movement." Together, we brainstormed the "5% Design Action Kaohsiung Base," located on the first floor of the social housing opposite Qianjin Elementary School. We exchanged our work beliefs, and what impressed me most was his statement: "Design must walk with others. The influence left behind is perhaps the true incarnation that transcends material existence."
In 5% Design Action’s social initiatives across Taiwan—whether workshops, lectures, dialogues, or exhibitions—every tool implies that deep encounters between people often require only a well-arranged opportunity to spark natural sharing. The 5% Design Action Kaohsiung base continues this philosophy, allowing exchanges to expand lightly and effortlessly.
We concentrated the main design volume at the storefront entrance, shaping it into a wooden cabin. The remaining space is fully utilized as an exchange classroom accommodating 12 to 16 people. For larger events exceeding 30 people, we link with the "Hongdao Qianjin Good Living Room" to the north, forming a point-to-point spatial utilization. One side of the wooden cabin faces the city streets, while the other features a facade with a small yellow-dotted awning. This implies that designers, after brainstorming in the classroom, will carry their passion back into the dynamic city to engage with and stir society.
We can imagine this base as a "house-in-house" concept, or as a reversal of indoor and outdoor spaces that blurs material boundaries. A mobile cart with casters is hidden within the cabin, ready to be deployed when interaction with people on the street is needed. For this project, we collaborated with a professional carpentry team to create a composite custom cabinet using eco-friendly plywood as the main structure and LVL boards for the doors. By using wood grain as a natural surface texture, we cast aside the traditional impression that non-solid wood must be covered, guiding viewers to see the diverse raw textures of wood materials.
Looking at the blueprint of the 5% Design Action social design platform in Taiwan, the "Wu-Tai-Ju Design Action Lab" allows various teams—such as the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, the MOE’s University Social Responsibility Center, the Kaohsiung Agriculture Bureau, the Cancer Hope Foundation, the Tainan Enterprise Culture and Arts Foundation, the Carrefour Foundation, the Hongdao Senior Citizen’s Welfare Foundation, Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital, Chateau de Chine Hotel, M.ZONE, Phantoms Board Games, and southern universities—to share a physical space for exploring the possibilities of social innovation and cross-disciplinary cooperation.
They also hope that through this "southern expansion," they can balance the status quo of regional revitalization and entrepreneurship, which has historically been weighted towards the north. With more people joining the urban-rural renaissance, local culture can take root and create differentiation, thereby generating a more diverse local identity and establishing a regional collective memory.