Page 107 - AIT0420_E-Paper

Entwurf • Design Waterfrom Design, TW-Taipei
Bauherr • Client Jing He Science Co., Ltd
Standort • Location Tongde 5th Street 98, TW-Taoyuan
Nutzfläche • Floor space 270 m 2
Fotos • Photos Kuomin Lee
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More information on page 150

IDEAL GAS LAB

IN TAOYUAN

To represent the subject of gas in architecture and in-
terior design is not an easy task! The volatile nature of
the medium appears to obviously resist a rigid likeness
in a room. The Waterfrom Design office of interior ar-
chitecture, however, has now found a very indepen-
dent and figurative translation of the subject for the of-
fices of the Taiwanese clean-gas company.

T he boundary between the two north-Taiwanese city regions Taipei
and Tao yuan is blurred. Highly industrialized and densely popu-
lated, the greater area with its almost nine million inhabitants is one
of the worldwide most important centres of information- and commu-
nication technology. In addition, major engineering companies and
producers of chemicals including suppliers and dealers are located
here. Among the latter is also the Jing He Science company specializing
in selling high-tech gas. Since last year, close to three dozen em-
ployees are working in a new high-rise building at the crossing of
Tongde 5th Street and Zhongzheng Road. The latter is one of the large
arterial roads of Tao yuan and connects the city in the south with the
international airport in the north. The skyscraper itself – with its Co-
rinthian pillared portico, the ornamented sandstone pilaster strips and
the chubby bird figures at the corners of the building – is a rather tragic
example of a late-capitalist pseudo-classicism as it is currently in great
demand in many up-and-coming regions of the world. The office pre-
mises of Jing He Science, in contrast, appeal with a contemporary de-
sign truly worth seeing. The so-called Ideal Gas Lab was planned and
implemented by Waterfrom Design. In the course of the past years, the
office of interior design founded by Nic Lee and headquartered in Tai-
pei and Shanghai has attracted much attention internationally – see
AIT 11/2017, for instance –, also because the works by the office director
trained at the New York Pratt Institute are very much oriented on we-
stern viewing habits. After all, the standard of Taiwan’s interior design
is currently – as is the architecture as well – characterized by rather su-
perficial bling. Here Lee and his Waterfrom Design make for a comfor-
ting contrast. For Jing He Science, he has now very illustratively trans-
lated the subject of gas production, -storing and -transporting into the
design of the office landscape. Thus, for example, disused gas cylin-
ders have been turned into table frames. Rounded and rusty-brown
painted installations – they serve as partitions and storage areas –
Grundriss • Floor plan refer to the industrial production of gas.

AIT 4.2020 • 107