Terra and Bamboola Together Create Bamboo Furniture of Localized Design

After engaging in interior-design work for a decade, Vincent Chang, president and design director of the Taipei-based Terra Space Design Co., LTD. Began thinking of how he could upgrade the domestic furniture industry and encourage it to focus on upscale products with distinctive designs and appearance that would stand out in the world market and create a brand image for the island's makers in the collective.

To that end, Chang began looking into the competitiveness of domestic players. "I believed that the competitiveness of the domestic industry could be evaluated through comparison with the economic-development experience of regional neighbors such as Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia, and such Western nations as Germany, France, and the U.S., " Chang says. "I found that domestic furniture manufacturers should place heavy emphasis on superior craftsmanship to increase their competitiveness, as Taiwan abounds in rich natural resources and a culture featuring esthetics uniquely its own."

Taiwan, Chang says, has a history of more than a half-century in developing paper, porcelain, and bamboo products, and in realist painting, giving rise to many talented craftsmen and unique artifacts. "In addition, over the past few decades Taiwan's successes in the development of computerized numerically controlled (CNC) machine tools and notebook computers has brought great opportunity for domestic interior-space designers to utilize technological applications in their design work, " he adds.

To help the domestic furniture industry develop products featuring more sophisticated design, Terra began cooperating with the Nantou County-based firm Bamboola D&C, which utilizes conventional craftsmanship to produce exquisite handcrafted puzzle boxes that have brought it recognition and many local design awards.

Bamboo is the quintessential representative of eastern culture in terms of raw materials, and is a favored material in artistic creation. Since its establishment in 1980, Bamboola has emphasized bamboo in its design creations, bringing new technical developments that have proven unique contributions to the evolution and upgrading of Taiwan crafts.

"We use Bamboola's sophisticated production skills in handcrafted bamboo products, placing our own brand alongside theirs on our end-products as indication of our own firm's unique design ability and contribution, " Chang states. "Domestic manufacturers can adopt a designer's creativity in their products, and the designer's brand on their products, to boost product value. We will extend our successful experience in cooperating with Bamboola to other sectors, such as paper-based products. In this way, Taiwan will not only be exporting industrial products and handcrafts, but its indigenous culture as well."


Chang says the creation of handcrafted products is heavily reliant on designers' intelligence and the skills that come from experience. Moreover, handcrafted products, such as jewelry, can only be made in limited amounts while industrial designs can be produced in large quantity.

"The popularity of designers can grow in tandem with the development of industries, " explains Chang. "But industrialists should know that designers cannot help them make profits immediately, and that they have to set up an in-house R&D team for long-term interaction with designers to achieve maximum, optimal effect. Taiwan should follow in the footsteps of the U.S. and the economically advanced European nations, who have enhanced their visibility worldwide by employing the most talented designers."

Chang says Taiwan has cultivated a solid corps of talented designers who can interact with industrialists for the creation of brand-design products. "But there is still much room to expand cooperation between industrialists and designers in Taiwan's furniture industry, "he laments. "In the past, sophisticated designs were adopted in conventional crafts, rather than furniture products. In my opinion, creativity and innovation are yet to be-but must be--fully developed in furniture products, and I firmly believe that locally developed craftsmanship used in exporting furniture products can also effectively boost the business image of our nation."

In keeping with the government's efforts to develop the creative cultural industries in Taiwan, Terra has helped Bamboola to design a spate of novel bamboo artifacts and furniture items. One example, the "Sunrise" bamboo desk, won an international design award, presented by the Japan-based Artist Friendship Association of Asia, at the 40th Asian Modern Art Exhibition 2004. Chang says this was the first time Taiwan's bamboo-furniture manufacturers participated in the Tokyo-staged modern-art exhibition.

The "Sunrise" bamboo desk is an "amalgam of special styling and cultural essence, " says Chang, and requires sophisticated equipment and the most complicated processing skills in its production. Output is limited to just 100 units per month, which because demand is far beyond this has made them something of a collector's item.

The award bestowed in Tokyo, Chang believes, is clear proof that Taiwan is capable of designing world-class furniture products by taking advantage of its unique culture and natural resources. "Our team employed 'Eastern intelligence and philosophy' to formulate our best design in the award-winning Sunrise bamboo desk, " Chang states, "and I believe that all furniture designs can have their value maximized with inspiration from the unique facets of local nature that surrounds us."