Livhub will host tour “Repair our futures: A journey to encounter circular and social design in Taiwan”

Livhub, a media for sustainable and extraordinary experiences, operated by Harch, will host a tour titled “Repair our future: A journey to encounter circular and social design in Taiwan” from June 13 to 16. The tour will visit 10 companies and organizations in Taiwan that practice circular and social design.

This tour is now full and registration is closed. (Updated April 4)

*This article is a reprint of “[June 13-16] A Journey to See Circular Social Design in Taiwan ‘Repair Our Futures'”. (in Japanese)

Tour “Repair our futures: A journey to encounter circular and social design in Taiwan”

What do you want to repair now?

In December 2023, I visited a town repair station in an alley in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. There I asked, “What kinds of things do people bring in for repair?” I got the following answer.

Electric pots, toys, and many other things. The reason we want to fix something is not necessarily because it is expensive. People often come with cheap but memorable items, such as hangers or luggage containers that they take with them when they go shopping at the market.

Zhao Chien-yu, who works as a volunteer at the repair station, originally worked in Taiwan’s high-tech industry. After retirement, he became involved with this place he happened to see and entered, and in 2023 it will have been 10 years. He told us that he was very happy to be able to serve society in this way even after quitting his job.

He also said that it was here that he was able to reconnect the people of the town, who had been experiencing internal conflicts due to a certain incident, to each other.

“Experience for Good” is a hands-on program organized by IDEAS FOR GOOD, a global magazine of ideas for a better society, to enable participants to see and feel sustainability in action, which cannot be conveyed in words alone. This time, IDEAS FOR GOOD and Livhub, a travel lifestyle magazine that believes in the power of travel, will co-host the program with the Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI), a government-affiliated design promotion organization in Taiwan.

The first trip in 2024 will take place in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital city (and in part in Hsinchu and Taoyuan).

Since the enactment of the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act in 1974, Taiwan’s small size and limited resources have promoted waste reduction and recycling efforts, including the development of laws and regulations. With such a foundation in place, and the need to address economic and security concerns, the public and private sectors are rapidly working together to transition to a circular economy. (Reference: IDEAS FOR GOOD article “Circular Design in Taiwan Today. Interview with the President of Taiwan Design Research Institute”) (in Japanese)

Taiwan is focusing on the soft power of design, where people’s creativity adds value, as one of the key solutions for the transition. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a UK-based circular economy promotion organization, also sees this design as one of the key elements in the transition to a circular economy.

In this 4-day/3-night trip (June 13-16), the participants will visit 10 companies and organizations that practice circular and social design in Taiwan. The theme of the trip is “Repair our futures.”

“Repair” means to fix what is broken. What is “broken” in today’s society?

Is it the products that no longer work, the relationship between products and us, or the systems that surround them all?

The act of repair is never performed unless there is an attachment to the state of the product before it was broken. In this sense, repair is not an act of denying the past, but rather an act of restoring the goodness that was there from the beginning and, in some cases, even overcoming that goodness.

So what do we want to “regain” through the act of repairing?

In this trip, with “repair” as one of the keywords, we would like to make this a journey in which each participant will search for his or her own “object word” of repair through encounters with the practice of circular social design in Taiwan and through dialogue among participants.

[Reference] [June 13-16] A Journey to See Circular Social Design in Taiwan “Repair Our Futures” | IDEAS FOR GOOD (in Japanese)
[Reference site] Livhub (in Japanese)
[Related site] IDEAS FOR GOOD (in Japanese)