DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
: Known as 'Taiwan's Kyoto', Tainan is rich in heritage and charm. Fuqian Road was built in the Japanese colonial period when the concept of western urban planning was introduced in Tainan. After that time, Taiwan's economy took off and Fuqian Road became prosperous until now. Homecoming wanderer chose this place as the base, and expected to display local feature and serve with local food. “Line” is the main conceptual design from beginning.
DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
: Tainan is one of the few cities in Taiwan that still keeps many old houses. An old house integrated with a novel business model is always the challenge of design. Through preservation and renovation, the concept of activation brings the refreshing experience for old house. Most of the initial look of building is well-retained and only with slight decoration. It not only maintains the original streetscape of city but also respect appearance of the ancient Tainan.
DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
: Through this award winning design, we hope to attract more people to experience the aesthetics of this work and delivery more knowledge regarding “old house renovation “.
DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
: 4-6Months
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
: This design concept is inspirited by the building itself and the owner’s operating concepts. We create a specific design for this building to refresh the old house and express the owner’s operating concepts.
DI: Who is the target customer for his design?
: It is a design for commercial dining space. The target is all consumers.
DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
: The object of this work is the joined old houses. We preserve as much as original part as we can instead of destruction. People can continue creating more good memories in this space.
DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
: “In stock” means good are available for sale and use. Food wasting is the hot international topic currently because the situation of global hunger, unequal distribution of resources and global warming. The owner began thinking how to improve this situation. Starting from the raw material, reducing the consumption during cuisine preparing, improving the quality of the meals and minimizing the leftover are things which we can contribute.This is the story behind "Instock Fun Kitchen".
DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
: In this design, the wall between two buildings is come down and part of the ceiling between the floors is also removed. The entire space can be connected from top to bottom and from left to right.
DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?
: We collaborated with Unlimited Design Studio to finalize this design, and perfectly present CIS in this space.
DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
: The renovation of old house includes evaluating the condition of abandoned house, keeping the original material elements of the building and integrating with the basic engineering such as structure, mechanical/electrical/piping system, and waterproof reinforcement. How to combine the new design and implement the renovation in the original building without conflict is the most difficult part of planning.
DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
: We have learned the importance of diverse and multi-function teamwork. In the future project, we will introduce diverse thinking to generate unlimited imagination.