Donna Cleveland

Interim Dean of the School of Communication & Design / RMIT Vietnam

Associate Professor Donna Cleveland is the Interim Dean of the School of Communication & Design. Prior to this role, She was the Deputy Dean, providing academic quality assurance and academic development, and promoting the scholarship of learning and teaching.Donna's academic career is marked by global engagement with industry and educational audiences, providing intellectual commentary through academic writing and presentations. Her work has led her to exhibit and facilitate workshops in major cities worldwide, including London, Eindhoven, New York, Minnesota, San Francisco, Kentucky, Madrid, Auckland, Melbourne, and within Vietnam. These engagements have focused on sustainable design strategies, the exploration of alternative materials, and the envisioning of future design possibilities. Her previous roles at Auckland University of Technology include Associate Head of School- Learning and Teaching at the School of Future Environments, and Program Director of the Creative Technologies undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

Session 1:
Bioregioning as care

Closing Session:
The future(s) of circular design in the Asia-Pacific region

Tomas Diez

Co-Founder
Chairman of the Supervisory Board / Fab City Foundation

Tomas Diez Ladera is a Venezuelan urbanist, designer, and technologist based in Bali Indonesia. Specialized in digital fabrication and its implications on the future of cities and society, he has been instrumental in launching and leading initiatives like the Fab City Foundation, the Fab Lab Network, and the Smart Citizen project.Throughout his career, Tomas has been involved in a range of technological and social projects, from rehabilitation plans in marginalized areas to the creation of Fab Labs in various cities. He has also co-founded and co-directed several higher degree programs and is currently the President-Director of the Meaningful Design Group Bali, where he focuses on integrating advanced technologies with alternative perspectives and cultures. His research interests relate to the use of digital fabrication tools to transform reality, and how the use of new technologies can change the way people consume, produce and relate with each other in cities.

Session 2:
Future Circular City

Shang-Hsien Hsieh

Director of the Research Center for Building & Infrastructure Information Modeling and Management / National Taiwan University

Dr. Hsieh is a Professor in the Computer-Aided Engineering Division of the Department of Civil Engineering at National Taiwan University (NTU), Taipei, Taiwan. He is currently the  Director of the Department's Research Center for Building & Infrastructure Information Modeling and Management. He was a member of the Board of Directors (BOD) of the International Society for Computing in Civil and Building Engineering from 1999 to 2022 and served as the society’s President from 2006 to 2008. He is currently the BOD member of the Asian Group for Civil Engineering Informatics (since 2013) and the International Consortium of Construction Engineering and Project Management (since 2021). Due to his contributions to academic research, international cooperation, and the construction industry’s digital transformation practice, Dr. Hsieh was elected as a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Engineering in 2021. He has a wide range of research interests, including intelligent engineering & construction modeling and simulation, engineering information & knowledge management systems, and innovative engineering education. His recent research focuses on digital transformation for the sustainable development of the built environment.

Session 3:
(Re)Making sense of the built environment within bioregioning flow

Yi-Che Hsieh

Third-generation Black Bean Soy Sauce Craftsman / YDSIN1940

Yi-Che Hsieh, the third generation of black bean soy sauce makers at Yu-Ding-Shing, has 18 years of experience in making soy sauce. His mission is not only to make a good bottle of soy sauce, but to create a bottle of 'soy sauce with culture'. Starting from the daily soy sauce production process, he faithfully records the making of soy sauce with images and words. Through the accumulation of this content, he has gradually constructed his own aesthetics of soy sauce, which he has also exhibited in four soy sauce photography exhibitions in Taiwan. Expanding the scope to cover all of Taiwan, Yi-Che believes the sorting out and construction of soy sauce culture will be the key to future developments in Taiwan's soy sauce industry. Since 2016, he has actively visited traditional soy sauce makers all over Taiwan, recording the precious stories, concepts, and production processes of 12 soy sauce makers. Through this process, he has met many industry peers who share his vision. Yi-Che hopes that one day in the future, Taiwan's soy sauce will become a cultural medium for the world to savor the essence of the terroir and its lifestyle, just like Japanese soy sauce, coffee, or wine.

Session 1:
Bioregioning as care

Ibu Istanda Takiscibanan

CEO / Kaiana

Hu Yuru (Ibu) is the CEO of the Kaiana Workshop, dedicated to promoting the traditional culture of the Bunun people, with a particular focus on millet restoration and culinary innovation. After returning to her hometown in 2013, she took over the Kaiana Workshop, which was founded by her parents, and began her deep commitment to reviving millet cultivation and promoting tribal culture.Through her participation in the Taitung Slow Food Festival, she has continued to innovate and promote traditional millet-based cuisine in contemporary ways. She also learned traditional weaving techniques from her mother, and as a skilled weaver, she is dedicated to the use and teaching of natural tableware, from gathering materials in nature to crafting them, thus forming a unique new dining aesthetic.Her efforts not only breathe new life into her tribe's traditional culture but also create tangible economic benefits, leading to the revitalization of the entire community!

Session 1:
Bioregioning as care

Minnie Jan

Director / MisoSoupDesign

Minnie Jan and her partner Daisuke Nagatomo are the founders of MisoSoupDesign in Taipei. Jan acquired a LEED certificate (USGBC), and her design incorporates digital tectonics and sustainability approaches. MisoSoupDesign works in diverse areas of design for architecture, interior, furniture design, and art installations. 

Session 3:
(Re)Making sense of the built environment within bioregioning flow

Ryota Kamio

Director / Re:public

Ryota, originally from Yokohama, is an urbanist and design researcher. He holds a master’s degree in Spatial Planning & Environmental Management from the University of Barcelona, as well as a master’s in Design for Emergent Futures from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), Fablab Barcelona, and ELISAVA School of Design and Engineering. Since 2019, he has been the leader of Satsuma Future Commons, a circular design lab, while co-directing several design education initiatives in rural Kagoshima. Ryota also lectures at both domestic and international universities, contributing to interdisciplinary education and research. His research explores the ontological relationship between design interventions and natural regeneration.

ORGANIZERS/ MODERATORS

Li-Chin Kuo

CEO / Co-create Planning & Design Consultancy

Born in Tainan, Taiwan and educated in Taipei, Li-Chin is now settled in eastern Taiwan Taitung, curating a variety of local projects. Majored in anthropology and urban-rural planning, she currently focuses on the possibility of developing local traditions through contemporary creative ways and local community participation. Li-Chin is the founder of Co-create Planning & Design Consultancy, and the Curator of Taitung Slow Food Festival, which won the Good Design Gold Award of 2021 and Taitung Action Award – Jury Grand Award 2022. She has also engaged in the role of Planner and Moderator of Taitung Design Center in 2017 and 2021-2023. Li-Chin has also received La Vie Creative Award -Most influential People of the year 2019.

Session 1:
Bioregioning as care

Ying-Chao Kuo

Founding Partner
Principal Architect / Bio-architecture Formosana

Kuo Ying-Chao is the principal architect of Bio-architecture Formosana (BaF) - a Taipei based architectural design firm. BaF has been one of the leading architecture firms in Taiwan, and its works range from culture, education, transportation, hospitality, workplace and housing for both public and private sectors. The Bei-Tou Library project completed in 2006 is Taiwan's first certified green architecture project. The timber library is the most published Green building in Taiwan and was selected as one of the 25 most beautiful libraries in the world by U.S.-based cultural news website Flavorwire. Focusing on sustainability and circularity design, he incorporates biological-intelligence (BI) design approach, a design philosophy of the company, into the creation of architecture. Ying-Chao has won numerous awards for his design in sustainability and was the recipient of the 12th Awarding of Outstanding Architects in Taiwan in 2011. He has taught in several university as an Associate Professor.

Keynote:
Bioregioning; Design, Ecology and a future

Oliver Lin

Acting President / Taiwan Design Research Institute

Oliver Lin is Acting President of TDRI, and Board Director at World Design Organization, WDO (2023-2025). He is frequently invited to be the jury board and the keynote speaker of international and national design awards and international forums. He has also served as the deliberation and advisory committee of major government plans, and has promoted the internationalization of Taiwanese design for more than 20 years. He is a planner and an important promoter of the design of cities. In recent years he serves as the key person in TDRI’s strategic research and planning of national design policies, supporting corporates’ design-empowerment and innovation, and also fostering the establishment and international promotion of the national design brand – “DIT” (Design in Taiwan), in order to build up Taiwan’s design ecosystem. He devotes himself in developing Taiwan Design’s international impact and the power of discourse. The vision is to make better change in Taiwan through design capabilities and to facilitate Taiwan design’s global reputation.

Session 2:
Future Circular City

Edward Masui

Director / Re:public

Edward received his BA in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley, and his MA from the Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS) at the University of Chicago. After returning to Japan in 2010, Edward was part of the launching of Japan Digital Archives Center, while acting as an international liaison between the library sector in Japan and those around the world for the Japan Library Fair Organizing Committee. He also took lead in several company-wide projects, including but not limited to, re-branding and business incubation projects. Edward’s focus is on designing learning environments that are conducive to collaborative making (things, events, social systems, etc.) activities, with an emphasis on digital fabrication technologies. He completed the Creative Leadership Program at Tama Art University in 2020, and joined Re:public Inc. in 2021.

ORGANIZERS/ MODERATORS

Justin McGuirk

Director / Future Observatory

Justin McGuirk is a writer and curator based in London. He is the director of Future Observatory, the national design research programme for the green transition, established by the Design Museum in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council. He is also the former chief curator of the Design Museum, where he oversaw the exhibitions programme for eight years and curated or co-curated numerous exhibitions, including Fear and Love (2016), California: Designing Freedom (2017), Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life (2021) and Waste Age (2021). In a diverse career, he has edited magazines, been a newspaper critic (the Guardian), founded a digital publishing imprint (Strelka Press) and curated critically acclaimed exhibitions. In 2012 he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture for an exhibition he curated with Urban Think Tank. He was also the founding Head of the Design Curating and Writing MA at Design Academy Eindhoven. He has lectured at universities and conferences around the world, and his writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the Guardian, e-flux and numerous art and design journals. He is the author or editor of several books, including Radical Cities: Across Latin America in Search of a New Architecture (Verso, 2014).

Keynote:
Bioregioning; Design, Ecology and a future

Closing Session:
The future(s) of circular design in the Asia-Pacific region

Daijiro Mizuno

Deputy Director of the Center for the Possible Futures / Kyoto Institute of Technology

Daijiro Mizuno completed his Ph.D. in fashion design at the Royal College of Art (London), in 2008. From 2009 to 2013, he worked as Director of Ultra Factory Critical Design Lab at the Kyoto University of Art and Design; it was around this time where he began actively exploring the field of slow, ethical, or sustainable fashion. Eventually, this experiece will develop into research on design practices with a focus on digital fabrication. From 2012 to 2019, Mizuno has also worked as Associate Professor at Keio University SFC. He has written and translated several books including “Circular Design: Products, Services and Businesses that Create a Sustainable Society” and the Japanese version of "Critical Design in Context: History, Theory, and Practice" by Matt Malpass. In 2021, he worked as Chairperson of the ”Future of Fashion Study Group” by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Closing Session:
The future(s) of circular design in the Asia-Pacific region

Ming Shan Ng

Chair of Architecture, Construction and Innovation / Kyoto Institute of Technology

Dr. Ming Shan Ng (吳 明珊) is currently a Full Professor at the Kyoto Institute of Technology (京都工芸繊維大学) in Japan. She received her bachelor’s and master’s in Architecture from ETH Zürich and her second master’s in Building History from the University of Cambridge. She completed her PhD in Civil Engineering at ETH Zurich. Her research focuses on solving complex design problems with technologies and innovations to foster sustainable development. She has given many lectures on computational design, robotics, sustainability, circular construction and lean management in Japan and abroad. Besides, she is a chartered architect in Switzerland and the U.K., a registered LEED AP and a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers in the U.S., as well as a member of the Architectural Institute of Japan. She has been practising in the industry for 10+ years and worked on many projects including the Azabudai Hills in Tokyo, Google Bay View California and Singapore Changi Terminal 5.

Session 3:
(Re)Making sense of the built environment within bioregioning flow

Chingyu Yao

Director General, Secretariat / New Taipei City Government

Chingyu Yao, Director-General of the Secretariat of New Taipei City Government, leverages her experience as a seasoned diplomat stationed in the US to bring an innovative approach to local government. Chingyu grew up in Taitung, a rural town in Taiwan, and remains a driver of change, utilizing her unique blend of global and local experience in international affairs. In 2019, she pioneered New Taipei City's Voluntary Local Review on SDGs, inspiring other cities to view municipal policies through a sustainability lens. In 2020, she was also the only Taiwanese official invited by UN Habitat to speak on SDG VLR at the World Urban Forum (WUF10) in Abu Dhabi. To date, Chingyu is highly recognized for her dedication, which extends beyond SDGs, as she has been instrumental in implementing gender equality policies by promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace and society.

Session 2:
Future Circular City

Kevin Yang

CEO and Founder / 5% Design Action

Dr. Chen-Fu (Kevin) Yang has a background in music, marketing, finance management and service design. He was the manager of Product-Service Integration department at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a co-leader of the Dechnology (Design Thinking + Technology Innovation) project of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. In 2013, he founded 5% Design Action Social Design Platform. Starting from 70 designers with cancer screening service design projects, there are more than 9,000 multi-disciplinary professions and designers on the network today, focusing on the challenges of aging, health, economy and environment protection. Currently he is the CEO of DreamVok, founder of 5% Design Action, co-founder of Service Design Network Taiwan Chapter, Executive V.P. of Asia Pacific Service Design Association., and Supervisor of Taiwan Elderly Care Industry Association.

ORGANIZERS/ MODERATORS

Zhe-Yue Yeh

CEO / Taiwan Field School

Gong-tou, who is bare-headed and wears a one-piece suit year-round, is often mistaken for a gang leader. He believes that vacant and abandoned buildings can be transformed into valuable community assets and that participation in their revitalization can help connect people. His team, based in the dormitory area of Chiayi Old Prison, specializes in cultural activation management. By hosting thematic exhibitions, educational programs and cultural events, they engage people with the space and cultivate new relationships within the city.

Session 3:
(Re)Making sense of the built environment within bioregioning flow