ART4D HAD A CONVERSATION WITH CHI YI CHANG, PRESIDENT OF TAIWAN DESIGN RESEARCH INSTITUTE (TDRI) – THE DESIGN RESEARCH INSTITUTE THAT FOUNDED THE GOLDEN PIN DESIGN AWARD
TEXT: KAMOLTHIP KIMAREE
PHOTO: KETSIREE WONGWAN EXCEPT AS NOTED
(For Thai, press here)
The rapid changes in technology that have occurred in recent years have created movements in many dimensions and affected many industries – including the design industry. The role of designers is now being challenged to break the traditional ways and to be able to respond quickly to various dynamics in recent days. In this exclusive interview, art4d spoke with Chi Yi Chang, President of Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI) – the design research institute that founded the Golden Pin Design Award, an international platform that helps promote design from Taiwan and across Asia on a global scale. The significant role of TDRI is to promote and raise the standards of the design industry in Taiwan. In recent years, TDRI has shifted its role from a design center to a research institute that strives to push forward in applying the design to the industrial sector and society in an effective way.
art4d: As the president of TDRI, how do you align TDRI’s vision with current trends or challenges in the global design industry, particularly in Taiwan?
Chi Yi Chang: TDRI is the biggest design platform in Taiwan. Our main goal is to upgrade design to connect to the nation and the world. So, starting in 2023, we set up Taiwan Design Week as a platform to connect Taiwan and the global design community. So in 2023, Taiwan Design Week’s theme was Elastic Bridging, which referred to how Taiwan is a small island but is very flexible. This is why we can maintain the whole ecosystem, from design to manufacturing, even though we are a small island.
But this year, of course, the big target is AI. Taiwan and the whole world are facing new opportunities and new challenges with artificial intelligence. Right now, AI can entirely change how society, industry and designers work. It is going to be a big challenge and also a big opportunity. As you know, Taiwan is good in technology, especially semiconductors. Taiwan also plays an important role in AI supplier manufacturing. So, we should use AI as an opportunity to encourage every designer to try using AI as a copilot or partner to explore the future. That’s why this year we are really focusing on AI. We have conducted two years of research and provide seven AI tools at the Taiwan Design Research Institute. In December 2024, we announced and provided those seven AI tools to every designer in Taiwan and our industry. This will help them understand how to use AI-driven innovation to boost efficiency and be more creative in the future.
art4d: How does TDRI collaborate with designers and industry stakeholders to bridge the gap between research and practical design applications?
CC: In 2020, the Taiwan Design Center was upgraded to the Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI). This means we believe design should not only include promotions or exhibitions. Instead, we should have foresight and look to the future, but to do so, we need research capabilities. So, for the last four years since TDRI was founded, we built our research team to perform R&D. We currently have 200 full-time employees, and our forty researchers do a lot of research. This shows how design should be more or less like science or technology – it should prepare for the future. TDRI is a platform with a lot of collaborative projects with the government, as well as many joint projects with the private sector. We have taken on many larger-scale projects, and as we are a platform, not only can we implement large-scale projects, but also, at the same time, we can also do research. For those kinds of larger-scale projects, we always do research first. So, we have a lot of procedures to make the whole system much better for the future.
art4d: I can see that you have a very big and great research team working on numerous projects. But how do you ensure that the research can actually address the Taiwanese communities and aspirations?
CC: TDRI has been active in several domains since it was founded. One is design-driven social innovation, and the other is design-driven industrial innovation. The last one, and also the biggest one, is design-driven public service innovation. So, for the government sector, they find it very difficult to make anything new – any innovation. But for the past four or five years, we have actually collaborated with different ministries – Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Transportation and Communications, Ministry of Digital Affairs, Ministry of Culture, and even the Central Election Bureau. We actually collaborate on real projects. We implemented those projects and also got really good results.
art4d: Do you have anything to say to promote TDRI?
CC: We’d like to thank your media because, through your help, this year’s Golden Pin Design Award received many more submissions from Thailand. I say you have done a great job, and I would like to thank you.