Project Type: Communication 
Category: Exhibition, Event
Client: Ministry of Economic Affairs, Hsinchu City Government
Year: 2020
Location/Venue: HSINCHU / Hsinchu Municipal Stadium  


#AR 
#AI #YOLO
#AirBox #GFS
#Installation

Taiwan Design Expo - The Terminal

Located at the Hsinchu Municipal Stadium, “The Terminal” is the main venue of the Taiwan Design Expo 2020. We were invited by BIAS Architects & Associates to co-plan this venue. As the name suggests, from a digital perspective, we will dig deep into the intricate relationships between people, cities, technology, and design, to help you understand the invisible urban wisdom.

Virtual City Hidden within the Stadium

Starting from the research and investigation of this concept with the Hsinchu City Government, we consulted many workers who are behind-the-scenes driving forces on many related issues along the way. And we compiled a series of documents to reconstruct how this theme looks at this moment in theory and also based on the current situation. Deconstructing and restructuring this information so that it becomes a perspective-based space and content, we lead the audience to see and feel with their bodies as to how digital technology intervenes and changes the appearance of the society as a whole.

Spatially, we used the original structure of the stadium, which is its upper and lower levels (spectator’s seating and athletic field), to disassemble the exhibition content through a translation of form many segments within two large areas. And through the arrangement of visitor flow and spatial context, we reconnect and combine these to become a real and existing digital world. Visitors will follow the locations we have arranged to complete a journey into the virtual city.

This is the ramp entering the spectator’s seating area, and will be used as a corridor into the digital world. This straight, long, narrow, and upward pathway, along with the large flowing images on both sides, leads the audience gradually forward with the bits. An analogy is drawn between the audience and information packet, where the audience becomes the “digital technology” itself, where they also become compressed and streamed to the digital world.

At the end of the ramp, a visual ritual is built, which virtualizes the body. Using the characteristics of a partial mirror, an interface with a superimposed switch between being virtual and being real is constructed. When the audience passes through, the body will instantly be deconstructed into a digital image. To describe this straightforwardly, this is the portal to the digital world.

The Hsinchu Monster symbolizes the power of the advancement of the entire city, while citizen participation is an important driving force in making the city smarter. Through design translation, the “collective intelligence that drives the city" is made abstract and becomes the “Heart of the Hsinchu Monster” located within the venue. The audience's choices in the six major aspects of life are collected. And using AR technology along with lighting connections, these choices are used as nutrients to feed the heart of Hsinchu monster at the other end of the venue.

The Hsinchu Monster Monitor, which is set up on the side, displays the attribute proportions of participants. This is hinting that the city is composed and operated by people. Through their joint participation in public issues and bringing together everyone’s strengths, urban development, progress, and common prosperity are promoted.

Using large-area splicing screens as image carriers, through generalization, various information distributions are organized, where the visualization of geographic information, such as transportation, AI, and weather is included. Various appearances of Hsinchu is displayed, simulating the scenario of situation room, where we can imagine how city managers pay attention to the city’s operation and assist in its progress.

“A concrete terminal” is the spatial and conceptual core of the entire venue. The design attempts to create a huge mass, where people can view it from a distance or enter within it. Diamond gauzes with balanced transparency were selected and imported, where we then staggered and stacked them as a screen where images can be projected upon. The content is the process of collecting, importing, sorting, analyzing, and applying the visual data. The image increases progressively in layers within the space, forming a light box where the information is flowing in a three-dimensional space.

Taiwan Design Expo - The Terminal

Organizer : Ministry of Economic Affairs, Hsinchu City Government
Executive Organizer : Industrial Development Bureau, MOEA
Executive Team : Taiwan Design Research Institute, BIAS Architects & Associates, Grand view Culture & Art Foundation
Co-Organizer : Taiwan Power Company
Curator : Tammy Liu
Curator Team：BIAS Architects & Associates, Ultra Combos

Interactive Design：Ultra Combos
    Project Manager : William Liu
    Producer : Hoba Yang
    Creative Director : Jay Tseng
    Art Director : Glenn Huang
    Technical Director : Hoba Yang
    Project Assistant : Miao Lu

   Electric Tunnel
        Visual Production : Glenn Huang

   Portal to the Digital World
        Generative Art Designer : Hoba Yang, Tz Peng
        Visual Production : Hauzhen Yen

   Hsinchu Monster Incubator / Monitor
        Programmer : Nate Wu
        UI Designer : Lynn Chiang
        UX Designer : Lynn Chiang, Nate Wu
        Motion Designer : Kei Zheng, Hauzhen Yen
        Lighting Design : TING HAO TSU LIGHTING DESIGN STUDIO, ACROPRO

   Background Database for Life - Data Monitor
        Programmer : Hoba Yang
        Visual Production : Mal Liu, Glenn Huang
        Collaborative Content : 2019 SP Option Studio GIA NCTU, Traffic Police Brigade. Hsinchu City Police Bureau, Hsinchu City Government Department of General Affairs, Information Management Section, PM2.5 Open Data Portal, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
        AI Video Analytics : ioNetworks INC.

   Walk into Hsinchu Terminal - Data Forests
        Visual Production : Glenn Huang, Hauzhen Yen, Ting-An Ho, Chris Lee

Music Design : Sincerely Music
Photographic Record : Yi-Hsien Lee and Associates YHLAA, Lambda Film
Hardware Testing : Herry Chang, Alex Lu, Chia-Wei Lin
Special Thanks : TonyQ Wang, Shuyang Lin, Fang-Jui Chang,
Wei-An Zheng, Chi-Kai Lu, Shermy Liu,