How Taipei designers operate between cutting-edge technology and their country's cultural foundations

In this new series on Design Cities, we zero in on three new creative metropolises – Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; Beirut, Lebanon; and Taipei, Taiwan – to spotlight the designers and curators who are shaping these vibrant new design communities

Meet Taipei's emerging creatives

Curator Sandra Wang, after spending most of her career working for fashion houses, founded her design platform Fanzi as a way to ‘support artists, designers and architects from Taiwan,’ she says. ‘We have so many talented people here, but they don’t know how to promote themselves. I wanted to provide a platform to introduce them to the international market.’

In June 2025, Wang made good on her promise by staging ‘Optical Flow’ in Copenhagen during the annual 3 Days of Design festival. She brought together six Taiwanese designers whose work played with artificial light, a theme that reflected Taiwan’s reputation as a tech-forward society.

Wang sees the exploration of new technologies and the experimentation with industrial materials like metal as a hallmark of contemporary Taiwanese design. The country, after all, is among the world’s leading manufacturers of technical equipment such as semiconductors, which contribute around ten per cent of its GDP.

‘Designers are interested in new technology like AI and robotics,’ she says, pointing to the work of designers such as Coby Huang, whose research has led her to create products ranging from bespoke steel furniture to 3D printers and minimal aluminium headphones.

But that exploration into technology, Wang says, is balanced by a second current of designers seeking to reconnect with the country’s cultural foundations. ‘Many are starting to pay attention to traditional craftsmanship,’ says Wang. ‘There are 16 different aboriginal tribes here in Taiwan, and many younger designers are seeking them out – to learn from the old masters about weaving or how to work with bamboo.’

Among them is Chialing Chang (known as Messagingleaving), whose study of the weaving methods of the Tafalong tribe of Pangcah inspired a tiered hanging system made with bamboo and rattan. Also working in lighting is Kelly Lin, co-founder of the brand Kimu Design, who draws from East Asian imagery, including tea whisks, bamboo blinds, lanterns and, in the case of the cylindrical ‘Churro’ lighting system, the spokes of a traditional water wheel.

As for Ting-Hsuan Chang, her work often explores the nature of light, fire and transparent materials, with designs including the ‘Moment’ table, whose surface texture is created by wax pooling from dripping candles.

Others, Wang says, find inspiration in the city itself. She cites Yen-An Chen and Shuei-Yuan Yang as two designers who translate elements of Taiwan’s urban landscape into contemporary design. Chang’s neon lamp series was inspired by the once-ubiquitous but now disappearing signage that lit up Taipei’s streets.

Yang, meanwhile, took his cues from the welded metal ball-and-socket joints of the balustrade systems of Taiwan’s public buildings to create his ‘Railing’ series. But more than anything, Wang sees a spirit of experimentation and openness. ‘It’s very free here in Taiwan,’ she says, referring to the relative newness of furniture making compared with countries like Denmark or Italy, where traditions run deep. ‘There’s no baggage, so designers can go wild.’

This series appears in the January 2026 Next Generation issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + from 4 December 2025. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today