Project_ VESSEL OF FUTURE COMMUNE
Client_ U-mkt by JUT Foundation for Arts and Architecture
Agency_ Loftwork
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Project Direction, Project Management_ Daiki Tsutsumi (Loftwork)
Creative Direction, Production Management_ Joy Hsieh, Mong-Tzu Kyo (Loftwork)
Art Direction_ Joy Hsieh (Loftwork)
Key Visual Illustration_ Baku Maeda
Key Visual Graphic & Collaterals Design_ www.ddd.pizza (Peter Chang, Leo Hsieh)
Interpretation / Translation_ Mong-Tzu Kyo, Piggy Yang (Loftwork)
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Creation_ Studio on_site (Hiroshi Ohno), mounouno (Jui-Chien Hsu, Karen Chiang), SAMPO Inc. (Riku Murakami), Zwhy (Gabriel Tsung, Chi Liu, Eddy Hsiao), TEAM BONUS TRACK (Hiroyuki Ono, Ayaka Sakuragi, Kohei Shishida), peiwenjin (Pei-Wen Jin), Mong Tong (Yu Hom, Jun-Chi Hung, Tong), Misa Murata, ebixcalligraphy (Pei-Ling Tsai)
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PR_ U-mkt (Wen-Chang Yang, Li-Hsuan Lin)
Photography_ Anpis Foto (Anpis Wang), Loftwork (Daiki Tsutsumi, Joy Hsieh), JUT Foundation for Arts and Architecture
Videography_ Haruki Neda
2022
Located in Taipei’s oldest developed district of Wanhua, the historic Xinfu Market — a city-designated heritage site — was revitalised by the JUT Foundation for Arts and Architecture and reopened to the public as "U-mkt." The revitalization aimed to:
[1] Transform the market building into an educational hub for food and nutrition.
[2] Serve as a community platform for discussing local social issues.
[3] Act as a bridge for connecting local and external communities.
Following six years of fieldwork, public exhibitions, and community workshops with market vendors, U-mkt’s team encountered two main challenges: inspiring young visitors to actively engage with the market and Wanhua, and establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with local industries. In response, U-mkt partnered with Loftwork to reevaluate its future direction and operational model.
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How might U-mkt, a newly established team, respectfully identify its role in supporting Wanhua’s ageing community and declining industries while positioning itself as a bridge between the area’s rich traditions and its future potential?
Hosting exhibitions or publishing magazines alone is not enough to ignite new local culture. Creating the future of a place requires “future practitioners” who can initiate new cultural forms, not merely “discoverers of charm.”
To position U-mkt as an incubator for future initiatives, we invited nine groups of creators from Taiwan and Japan with the potential to develop local businesses of the future. These creators were based in Wanhua for a month, where they conducted research, ideated, and developed prototypes to explore the district’s potential. Their works were presented at the annual U-mkt exhibition, “VESSEL OF FUTURE COMMUNE.”
Given the pandemic restrictions in Taiwan, we helped four Japanese teams secure permits to work in Taiwan for one month. We created a collaborative environment that allowed participants to work across language and cultural barriers, fostering an open, trusting space for creative exchange and collaboration.
Sharing Targeted Transparency, Providing Space, Trust and Resource for Future Creators
To successfully transform U-mkt into an experimental space for future creators, Loftwork bridged local knowledge and external expertise, creating an environment for exchange. This open collaboration was vital to the project’s long-term success and quality output. For the Japanese creators new to Wanhua, we ensured that they had the materials and workspaces needed to focus on meaningful cultural exchanges and high-quality output.
The exhibition’s key visual was inspired by the dream parade scene in Satoshi Kon’s anime, Paprika, reflecting the concept behind “VESSEL OF FUTURE COMMUNE.” This symbolises how the nine groups of creators bring their visions for Wanhua’s future, as Xinfu Market historically served as a port for “unknown objects” from afar. This platform for collaboration opens possibilities for new cultural connections between Wanhua and the world.
For the public relation of “VESSEL OF FUTURE COMMUNE” exhibition, we created a small newspaper and nine concept cards to share insights of the Creator-in-Residence program and the ideas behind each prototype. This provided visitors with a way to revisit the creators' concepts and engage with them long after the exhibition concluded.
Beyond showcasing the 9 prototypes, we hosted 4 events to foster stronger connections between creators and the local community and to deepen visitors’ understanding of the program’s objectives:
This project created a sustainable model for cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary exchange between local residents and international creators. In 2022, Loftwork and U-mkt successfully implemented this experimental approach to nurturing local businesses with the potential to shape Wanhua’s future, shared publicly through the “VESSEL OF FUTURE COMMUNE” exhibition.
During the exhibition, curator Daiki Tsutsumi was invited by multiple Taiwanese media outlets to discuss the significance of nurturing local businesses and shaping regional futures, further prompting knowledge-sharing and cultural exchange with other local revitalization teams in Taiwan.
“Through this future-oriented project redefining U-mkt's positioning, Loftwork reminded us of the original intention behind our initial involvement with this venue.”Yi-Ling Hung
Director of U-mkt
“This project doesn't feel like work; it's more like people with the same goal doing something fun and meaningful together.”Pei-Wen Jin
Zero-Waste Fashion Designer
