Department of Cultural Affairs

10 Years of Street Corners: Marrying Sophisticated Lifestyle with Design

Since 2012, Taipei City Government has been exploring street aesthetics and societal issues through a series of design initiatives as a soft-power, cross-disciplinary approach to stimulate ideas and dialogue. From these explorations was born the “When Taipei Street Corners Meet Design” project. 

The project uses design initiatives to put designers, creators, and art groups from various fields in dialogue with city residents, combining aesthetics with civic participation in everyday spaces to build a free, comfortable, and stylish living environment. 

With Taipei’s ongoing trials and experiments, the 2016 World Design Capital has gradually consolidated creative energies from the ground up. This has opened up residents’ imaginations and encouraged people to explore the different districts and get to know the rich textures of the city accumulated over the years. 

Streets and alleyways are an excellent place to start. People are encourage to immerse themselves in the beauty of the streets and rediscover details in everyday life, in the hope that these design initiatives will gradually transform Taipei into a more livable and beautiful city.

 Winner of the 2018 Good Design Award (Japan) and the TID Award and Gold Award at the 10th Taiwan Interior Design Awards. The project uses a soft-power approach to intervene in streets and reshape the atmosphere of public spaces

Ten Years of Street Corners: Excavating the lively charms of Taipei’s alleyways

Over the past decade, When Taipei Street Corners Meet Design has been using design and creativity to stir up the city’s artistic energy at various sites (signboards, stores, resident stories), on the move (streets, bridges, public spaces), and in showcases (design connections, themed artistic curation).  

The Small Signboard Factory initiative in 2016 brought designers and stores together to share different viewpoints and build brand new signboard identities from stimulation, opening up possibilities for the city’s rather one-dimensional signs. 

The Shilin Metro Lower Corridor Obsolete Equipment Renewal initiative in 2017 used design renewal to make the spaces under bridges shine once more, transforming the city corridor ecosystem with it. These initiatives created new ideas and moments of beauty for streets and districts in ways that broke from the past. 

The 2022 When Taipei Street Corners Meet Design initiative has incubated ideas from the plentiful achievements of the past 10 years, returning to essential elements and taking the curatorial theme of Taipei Detour. The hope is that the public will leave behind the efficiency-centred mindset of the technology era, turn off Google Maps, and take their friends on a detour into everyday alleyways, immersing themselves in the charms of life and the surprises of design. 

In October and November of this year, two exhibition areas in Shilin and Xinyi, respectively, will bring together designers and creators from various fields to plan exciting micro renewal projects which will be held in conjunction with a range of experiential activities for residents. We invite you to join us in the second half of 2022 and explore the alleyways with a different life philosophy and a new perspective to discover the quintessentially Taipei way of life.

 Engaging in design co-creation with designers and stores, the initiative is aimed at reawakening people’s attention to the familiar things in everyday life.

▍2022 When Taipei Street Corners Meet Design | Taipei Detour

Exhibition Period | Shilin Exhibition Area: October 1 to 30

Xinyi Exhibition Area: November 12 to December 11