This time, I’m staying here until Thursday night, so we don’t have time. For the next time, I mean.
OK, this organization, this company, or this community is must go?
Definitely a cool ministry.
Yeah, I know. I saw like that, they’ll stick around for this conference and things, this time.
[laughs]
On Wednesday…
Yeah, so from tomorrow we are going to be together with Renat a lot. Do you know Renato?
Eileen?
I think she was mentioned in an email with you, I guess.
Yeah, basically she’s organizing this workshop for tomorrow with us. We’ll be together, and yeah. They seem very interested in things. We look forward to such entities, more in Taiwan.
Yeah, that would be cool. For the next time I think we’re going to come here to interview actually, it’s not been decided yet. But the plan is to visit here with Bryan Boyer.
Yeah, to find the institutions in Taiwan. We also at not only Taipei, but Taiwan, all the other cities in Taiwan. We think that would be main content of the second edition of Mormon Magazine.
Yeah, this year, it must be.
OK.
Have you been to Barcelona?
Virtually, yeah.
Yeah, before.
Yeah, OK. I just was going to mention about Pablo, because I met him probably last year as well. I’m not very sure if he is still in the department, though, because Madrid has really radical change of political things.
OK. I didn’t know that. Madrid Medialab does very interesting things. Also, I think Barcelona, you might find it very interesting as well. You know that Decode Project was basically led by Francesca Bria.
She was in charge of both launch in two cities. Also, quite many interesting players around this municipal government, especially the current government of Barcelona, the Ada Colau. She’s been quite interesting.
She’s been doing quite interesting things. Barcelona decided to provide Fab Labs as a public infrastructures. Each district has its themes. Where I was living has been has a theme of fabric. This public Fab Lab is focusing on fabric sectors.
It’s not only about Fab Lab, but for sure, Fab Lab has quite a lot of powers in Barcelona, I guess.
Estates, yeah.
It’s really beautiful. Actually, one of the main contents of this magazine, it talks about superblocks projects. The guy behind the project is called Salvador Rueda. He’s actually just retired. He’s around 70, I guess.
He basically brings the idea of biology in urban design. He is a biologist, actually. Funny thing is only half of the people working in this Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona are architects or urbanists. There’s psychologists, biologists, and they basically see the city as an ecosystem, but in a physical infrastructure.
Superblocks is the project which promotes to have more diversity of legal entities, what they call, which means the schools and shops. They also define a very specifically, for instance, the region, the Japanese region, and the Spanish region are different for them.
They don’t have the same, I don’t know how to say, number in the calculation. They define this diversity in an urban design way. He has been implementing these superblock projects in Barcelona. Also, quite all over the world.
He’s going to implement it soon in New York, as well, I guess. Vancouver is done. If people see that superblock project is just a pedestrianization project, but actually, the philosophy behind the project is a lot more beyond pedestrianization.
That’s why Vitoria is the first case of superblock. That was the prototype. I think that you saw that Vitoria is a walkable city.
Yeah, exactly. Transportation is really well-designed, for Salvador, Vitoria was a prototype, or his idea. Actually, to Southern Seven, I guess, Vitoria won the Green Prize of Europe…
That was a prototyping of his massive idea that he’s doing in Barcelona right now. It’s maybe controversial, because when you stop the cars that the city, many people go against. It’s because he implemented it in a pretty massive way this time.
He thought he’s well-prepared to do, because he’s done Vitoria. He’s done others. Still, little by little, all these are really accepted in Barcelona. It’s a lot of playgrounds in Barcelona. I’m from an urban design, a physical design, so I’m also interested in this kind of space design as well.
Also, I look at this Fab Lab movement, especially I’m close to Tomas Diez, because I was part of his first master degree, which is called “Design for Emerging Teachers.” Sound really romantic name. [laughs]
I’m trying to do a self-sufficient cities in Japan. I don’t know, I’m just in Japan for just for one month.
It’s wonderful. Also, I don’t know, if you have time, you can have a look at the magazine.
This Mara that I introduced, the sensor in a square, she is in the fourth chapter or something. Being Fab Lab is very interesting as well. They consider technology as an interface with the environment.
It’s been very interesting. I think we just quickly have this discussion within my team. We have to define for how long we’re going to be here for the next time.
Yeah. This is my very personal question.
In Taipei, I’ve seen a lot of green in the entrance of each apartment. To be honest, I never seen the capital, the country, which is covered massively by green, like here. Why is that? Is there a people’s hobby in general?
It’s a fashionable thing?
Yeah, of course the public infrastructure is also covered by green as well. It has to be, but for me, it’s going to be on a personal hobby type like gardening, because sometimes I see a…
Yeah, exactly. [laughs] Sometimes I see the trees, like massive, bigger than the apartment itself.
I was simply shocked. I love it, but…
Oh, yeah? OK.
I think it as a kind of fashionable thing.
All right, so back in the day it was not like this?
Are you born in Taipei?
You were born and raised in Taipei?
