Winning world awards in a row! In recent years, Taipower has assembled its public art, public relations and cultural and creative units to form a cross-departmental team. The team has joined hands with well-known teams in the industry to invest in culture and art. Last year (2019) was the first time the team used public art to activate cultural heritage by promoting Light Up 13-Layer Remains event on Mid-Autumn Festival night. The event attracted tens of thousands of people to gather in Ruifang. This year, Taipower won the Best of the Best Award in Germany's 2020 Red Dot Design, then continued on to win the Japan Good Design Award in the Block and Community Development Category in October and the US MUSE Design Awards. Taipower states that in addition to its efforts to ensure stable electricity consumption across the country, it is also contributing to Taiwan by preserving the cultural heritage of the power industry.
Taipower points out that the 13-Layer Remains historical monument used to the Shuinandong Refinery. It was the largest gold mine refinery in Asia. With the decline in mining activities in the late 1980s and the closure of Taiwan Metal Company, it was transferred to Taipower for management. Later, because of the metallic substances in the ground, the site was listed as a pollution control site. Its cultural value continues to be recognized and it has been successively selected as a New Taipei City historic building and a potential world cultural heritage site.
Last year, Taipower collaborated with international master lighting designer Lien Chou, artist Joyce Ho and YI.ng Lighting Design Consultants to light up the historic 13-Layer Remains which had been locked up for over 30 years. After winning the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America award in June this year, Taipower stood out from among nearly 5,000 entries in the Good Design Award to win the Block and Community Development Award, sharing the glory with Taiwan Railway, Hsinchu City Government and the Council of Hakka Affairs. On the 8th, Taipower once again received the recognition of the US MUSE Design Awards by winning the Platinum Award in the Cultural Heritage Design category and the Silver Award in the Landscape Design category in one fell swoop. Taipower said that it is very honored to be recognized by the international community and will continue to actively develop more diversified corporate faces while ensuring a stable power supply.
Taipower indicates that under the premise of not affecting the public, it adopted a brand-new concept of public art and an unprecedented model of reusing polluted land to promote the revitalization of cultural heritage with "far-sighted" public art. Collaborating with internationally renowned master lighting designer Lien Chou and artist Joyce Ho, low color temperature "lights" were used to light up the 13-Layer Remains to avoid disturbing the surrounding environment. The lights created a spectacular night view like a city in the sky and added a historical aura to the Ruifang area, also known as the Gold Mountain City.
Taipower explained that in the past, the historic 13-Layer Remains site was unable to demonstrate its important role in recording Taiwan’s mining industry due to land pollution. In addition to environmental monitoring and removing asbestos tiles to reduce pollution hazards to the land, Taipower also adopted the far-sighted approach of using public art to light up the 13-Layer Remains as a way to arouse public’s attention to mining culture. In addition, Taipower collaborates with local residents to develop night attractions to extend visitor stay, and works with the local people to create local revitalization. In September this year, Taipower also won the Asia Responsible Enterprise Awards in the Social Empowerment category.
Japan’s Good Design Award has a history of more than 60 years since its establishment in 1957. Each year, Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Department of Commerce) selects and awards the top 100 good designs from all over the world. Alongside Germany's Red Dot Design Award and iF Product Design Award and the US International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), it is one of the world's four major design awards and is also known as the Oscar of Oriental Design.
The US MUSE Design Awards aims to discover and commend outstanding people in the six design fields of architecture, interiors and fashion. It gathers global cross-domain design thinking. After going through repeated selections, only works with top aesthetics and concepts have the opportunity to become " The Muse of Design World".
Taipower explains that by starting with the historical 13-Layer Remains, it hopes to continue to communicate with all sectors of society, actively create sustainable cultural heritage and be among the public through multiple facets. Taipower is currently restoring historical sites such as the Jinguashi Shinto Shrine and the Crown Prince Chalet. It is restoring the Jinguashi Shinto Shrine by retaining its ruins and protecting its beams and pillars from collapsing. The restoration is expected to be completed in the next year (2021). Augmented reality (AR) will be integrated to provide the public with a contemporary experience of the shrine as if they had traveled through time and space. Hence Taipower not only lights up the historic 13-Layer Remains, but is also highlighting tourism and development of the entire Jinguashi area.
Spokesperson: Chang Ting-Shu, Chief Administrator
Telephone: (02)2366-6271/ 0936-625-552
Email: u742433@taipower.com.tw
Business Contact: Chang Liu-Guo, Director of the Department of Construction
Telephone: (02)2366-6920/09
Email：u701096@taipower.com.tw