2012年10月16日 星期二

The Beauty of Handmade Craft


Designed by Field Office/ Photographed by GR


From the Stone Age, human beings started using hands to invent tools. As time goes by, different cultures developed their own unique living environments, as well as their sense of beauty. Under different culture and surroundings, handmade craft can mostly shows one area’s special nationality. In the early 20th century, Bauhaus movement used machines to build our everyday appliances. Because of its focusing on making things international and massive production, the beauty and particularity of handmade craft disappeared. Till 70th, scholars advocated glorifying our special culture spirit. After that, handmade craft are again taken seriously. Our goal is to find out the extraordinary art and artifact spots in Yilan. We took these photos, in order to let viewers to experience and realize the beauty of Yilan.



Designed by Wei-Shen Yi / Photographed by GR

2012年7月4日 星期三

GR cooperates with City Yeast for Aveda - Water Warrior

According to American government, one out of seven people in the world is suffering from not having pure water to use. Two third of American will confront serious lack of water source in 25 years. Thirty six states in USA will encounter the crisis of drought in 5 years.

Taiwan has second highest rate of rainfall of the world, but also placed 18th at the country that suffer from water supply. Urban citizens have easy access to water and take it for granted. Taiwan has one of the cheapest water usage fee in the world, cause Taiwanese forgot how precious pure water is.

GR,City Yeast and Aveda use innovative way to aware people the importance of water resources. Installation art products in Taipei Champs-Élysées Avenue, interactive structures with the voice from the nature, sounds from the ocean, rivers, songs sang by kids, etc. Allow urban people to hear the sound of water from the mother nature.

One kid passes away cause by lacking clean water every 21 seconds around the world. In order to avoid this kind of tragedy, we shall all do our best to protect our water resources.


Aveda's vision "connecting beauty,environment and well-being."


GR,City Yeast and Aveda are trying to aware people the importance of water.


Image, sound, and feeling are used to making connection between people and water resource.

ELEMA Full Waterproof LED warning light

Adorable and stylish animal design of “ELEMA Full Waterproof LED warning light” has unveiled a new fashion trend of sports accessories. ELEMA functions not only as a lightening tool, but also as a decorative device.



  • Easy to attach to any tube without tools.
  • Conform to IP67 water resistance level and able to use under water in one meter.
  • Hidden switch with large surface to promote ease of use.
  • Replaceable protective outer sheath to provide various appearances.
  • Silicone material identical to babies’ pacifiers to ensure your baby’s safety while using the product.
  • Equipped with low voltage warning indicator to remind batter change.
  • Multiple usage: can be attached to bikes, baby carts and backpacks as a warning light.
  • Can be children’s bath toys.
  • Stylish design and equipped with warning, water resistance, power saving, fashion and comforting function.



2012年7月3日 星期二

Sustainable Material Design for Yilan County Fishing Culture Conservation Association

fThe southern Yilan port of Nan-Fang Ao not only has a beautiful harbor, but because of offshore currents and copious amounts of fish, this has been a most important fishing port since the Japanese occupation. Nan-Fang Ao has seen many different ethnic groups since ancient times, thus, naturally developing into a sort of maritime culture melting pot.

In addition to fishing, the fishermen believe that prayer is extremely important to maritime safety as well as the amount of fish caught on each mission. Upon entering the village, one’s attention is immediately drawn to the fact that this fishing village is built around some magnificent temples of a great scale. Belief in God, and worship for the fisherman in the village plays an important role in life; with all kinds of temples representing the most important deities, religious activities, and gatherings, etc., belief has become a huge part of the fisherman’s mutual respect for the sea.


The dilapidated ship hulls are dismantled to be considered waste and disposed of.

Nan-Fang Ao, surrounded on three sides by mountains, is one of Taiwan's three major fishing ports and is a very affluent town; it offers rich resources, many beautiful environmental sceneries, progressively popular tourist and commercial activities. After a visit to Nan-Fang Ao, the shipyard and shipbuilding factories would probably leave the deepest impression of how life is at the port. Even through these difficult economic times, newly built ships are large and small, all created at the hands of skilled masters, while the shipbuilding workers in the pit work non-stop. A replacement hull lay outside, waiting for the arrival of a fisherman who could not avoid the equipment upgrade. Many shipyards younger generation want to learn the traditional handmade wooden shipbuilding, however the market and demand are almost non-existent, as we have fast, modern and lightweight fiberglass boat hulls readily available. On other side of the shipyards, old, dilapidated ship hulls are waiting to be dismantled; this is inevitable for old ships, and after salvaging any valuable motors, large hunks of metal and other items, the rest of the hull is considered waste and disposed of. This is a phenomenon that many modern port towns must cope with, not to mention the massive amount of waste that is left behind for the town to manage.


The lightweight fiberglass boat hulls has substituted traditional handmade wooden shipbuilding.

This could be considered the starting point of the ideal, ‘Recycle’. We have collected wood removed from the hulls of ships, wood that has seen countless storms at sea, and have created transformed home furniture not only for the residents of Nan-Fang Ao, but for any person who would like an elegant piece of the port’s history in their home.

Works:

Shipyard Furniture: Armchairs, dining table and chairs


Designed by Gina Hsu , Nagaaki Shaw
Material: Nails, cypress wood, scrap boat wood