We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Hsu-Hung Huang about their original and creative Rocking Chair design work. Hsu-Hung Huang is an award-winning industrial designer, that makes our world a better place with their original rocking chair works.
Hsu-Hung Huang ("HH") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Tao Rocking Chair. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
HH : Inspired by the craft of Tao, a Taiwan indigenous people, the designer has integrated their maritime culture into furniture design. Their knowledge and skills strongly represent Taiwan’s unique oceanic culture and spirit. By combining traditional and contemporary methods, this furniture design hopes to inform people of the culture of Taiwan’s indigenous people.
HH : Currently in Taiwan certain designers and consumers emulate global trends and fads with no thought to how it matches their lives. As a result, many opportunities to communicate Taiwan’s unique culture are being lost. There are sixteen indigenous groups in Taiwan who have various legends, crafts, and ceremonies. Although they have a precious culture, they are threatened to disappear due to issues such as lack of developments and small population. As time passes, people could ignore indigenous culture. To deal with this issue, I hoped to communicate Taiwan’s culture to the world via this project. Inspired by the craft of Tao, a Taiwan indigenous people, I have integrated their boat culture into furniture design. Their knowledge and skills strongly represent Taiwan ‘s unique marine culture and spirit. By combining traditional with contemporary methods, this project hopes to inform people of the culture of Taiwan’s indigenous people.
HH : In the future, I intend to continue enlightening people about Taiwan's unique culture through more design works.
HH : The project started in May 2017 in London and finished in September 2017 in London, and was exhibited at Viaduct Showroom London, Goldsmith University London and Eslite Bookstore Taiwan in July 2018 and 2019.
HH : I plan to extend the series of Tao rocking chairs and hoped to cooperate with some residents of the indigenous community and produce some design works in a small number of diversified ways. Through production cooperation, technology transfer, etc., aesthetic value and product quality can be improved. Also, expanding the consumer market of contemporary indigenous products and furniture is quite potential.
HH : I feel that is the sense of mission for saving cultural heritage.
HH : In Taiwan, I had an opportunity to understand Tao people’s wisdom; also, I attempted to learn the boat-building technique and marine knowledge from a Tao person. I still remember that Mi Sra Ko Sirman, an indigenous craftsman told me that if people do not regard the canoe as a real friend, they wouldn’t treasure a canoe very well.
HH : Customers targeted include cultural workers, art keepers, the government, and so forth.
HH : To my mind, it is my goal that the design works can reflect the unique value of Taiwan culture. To explain it, I am strongly committed to promoting Taiwan's marine culture and spirit in this world. Also, I used cultural elements to create this fascinating and elegant furniture.
HH : Tao rocking chair, the name comes from the indigenous people who live on Orchid Island in eastern Taiwan. Also, the Tao people are well-known for their traditional canoe craftsmanship. Inspired by the crafts of Tao, I integrated their boat-building craftsmanship into a piece of furniture. Furthermore, I hoped to transfer the experience of rowing the Tao canoe into the joyfulness of swinging in a rocking chair. Ultimately, the project explored the preservation of intangible cultural heritage and translated it into stylish and elegant artwork through contemporary design methods.
HH : The main digital tools are CAD and CNC. Also, I utilized traditional boat-building methods and tools like clamps, axes, saws and mallets.
HH : Taiwan is a picturesque and mountainous island on the Pacific Ocean and it demonstrates tremendous diversity in its cultural heritage. Especially, indigenous nations who have various legends, crafts, and ceremonies strongly represent Taiwan’s unique marine culture and spirit. To preserve this precious and traditional culture, I attempted to embed spiritual and societal knowledge and practices into material design.
HH : At the 3D studio of Kingston University, serval technicians and experts assisted me to deal with some specialized issues like CNC cutting and wooden manufacturing techniques. They provided relevant skills and plenty of advice to me. These experiences and suggestions are quite useful to produce Tao Rocking Chair.
HH : The purpose of this program is to utilize the traditional approach of boat-building to make furniture. Hence, the method of manufacturing should follow the Tao people’s example; also, solid timbers should be chosen. Nevertheless, when I conducted quite a few experiments, I discovered that natural deformation and warping would appear because of different cutting methods and growth characteristics. To deal with this concern, firstly, to cut various wooden components down, CAD and CNC were utilized. The axis of wooden components followed the wood grains since plants’ fabric affects the strength of materials and mechanics remarkably; also, I laminated a timber board and glued these wooden components together. Further, I divided the wood parts into three boards. In the middle part, a thicker and higher dense timber board was used. On both sides, thinner and lighter timber boards were used. Thus, the mid wood board can support the wood boards on both sides and this approach can make the structure stronger. This way is similar to the method of Tao canoe making. Using different characteristics and pieces of wood boards can make the rocking chair’s structure stable and durable.
HH : Through this program, I combined design approaches with my research to develop a solid culturally memetic design trend and communicate Taiwan’s culture to the world. That is to say, fieldwork, interviews, and publications helped me better understand Taiwan's indigenous culture. To name only a few, I studied a book named Culture and Art of the Formosan Aborigines (Liu, Qi-Wei, 2002). The artist, Liu, Qi-Wei systematically described Taiwan's indigenous culture including social organizations, customs, religions, arts, myths and legends and so on. So that, I was able to have a cultural holistic understanding of Taiwan's indigenous culture and art. Also, the author hoped to convey the cultural image to readers to assist them to respect Taiwan's indigenous culture.
HH : Mirroring the traditional boat building method, multiple wooden compartments were joined together by tenons and mortises; additionally, the mechanical characteristics of various wood species are considered to make the rocking chair the distinctive piece that it is. Thus, the structure of the furniture is more durable in resisting deformation significantly against changes in environmental humidity. By applying the hand-rubbed Danish oil finish, this method provides a natural and original wood texture to the furniture. Ultimately, by combining traditional craft with contemporary fabrication, an elegant and simple rocking chair was made.
HH : Regarding this design program, I hoped to concentrate on globalization and localization design issues originally. From my point of view, acquiring A’ design award competition not only is an honour but also is communication with other people all over the world. More exactly, on this platform, I would be able to interact with designers from different cultural backgrounds to exchange ideas and share the practical challenges of my past work experience.
HH : Via this project, I realized that designing not only requires sensitivity to beauty but the consideration of the strategies behind using aesthetics. When I incorporated these two aspects into the creative process, I was able to solve the certain social issue efficiently while also reflecting on my design philosophy.
HH : Many thanks, that’s all I have to say.
