More than a dozen emerging design practices from Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, and Hong Kong gather at the Taiwan Design Museum for the Asian premiere of an exhibition first presented at Harvard University

 

 

A pavilion that stands for a week. A market that changes use between morning and night. A parasol you can fold into your luggage. A Temporary Exhibition of Temporal Public Spaces opens on the afternoon of Monday, 10 August at the Taiwan Design Museum, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (Gallery 01); the public run continues from 11 August through 4 October. Surveying a new generation of designers from Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, and Hong Kong — half of them Taiwanese — the exhibition was first presented at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design in spring 2026 and begins its regional tour here in Taipei, before travelling on to Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Seoul.

 

 

At its heart is a single idea: that a generation working under constant uncertainty — short timelines, contested politics, seismic and climatic risk — has learned to deliver a high and distinctive quality of everyday life without waiting for the stability, wealth, or predictability once thought to be prerequisites. As those same pressures now reach places that assumed they had escaped them, what was once a regional resourcefulness becomes an intelligence worth sharing — a collective knowledge of how to live well in an uncertain world.

 

 

"These places have found a way to deliver a distinct and high quality of everyday life without waiting for the prerequisites once thought necessary," says curator Yun Fu.

 

Fragments, not finished buildings

 

Most of the thirty projects on display cannot be captured by conventional architectural drawings. They exist briefly, on demand — a pavilion that stands for a week, a market that changes use between morning and night, a music venue announced only on social media. The exhibition therefore travels not with models but with fragments: a neon sign, a wooden support, a piece of exterior tile, a folding parasol in red-white-blue tarpaulin — many carried across the Pacific in the designers' own luggage, now returning home. The exhibition architecture extends the idea: built from cardboard shipping boxes joined by orange ratchet straps, it can be packed up, shipped onward, and given away. The form is part of the argument.

 

Five ways of making a place

 

The exhibition is organized around five strategies these designers share. In Search of Comfort — as buildings grow lighter, comfort replaces form as the measure of quality. Fast Frame, Slow Frame — a durable structure split from a lighter, ever-changing infill. Many Small Things — large effects from small, borrowable, returnable parts, such as a market canopy made entirely of fallen leaves. From Graphic to Place — surface, colour, and light transforming a place at minimal cost. A Moment in Time — spaces held together not by material but by a shared sense that a gathering is worth attending.

 

Why the Milk Tea Alliance

 

The region is sometimes called the Milk Tea Alliance — a term born as an internet meme around 2020, capturing both a shared fondness for the customizable drink and a common experience of uncertainty. The curators adopt it deliberately: its cross-cultural, adaptable character mirrors a design sensibility that draws on the older building habits of island and coastal geographies — small materials close at hand, and sophisticated traditions of sharing, repair, and reuse — offering an alternative to technology-centred approaches to resilience.

 

A project that begins in Taipei

 

Developed in partnership with the Taiwan Design Research Institute, the Taipei presentation is bound up with Taiwan's design schools, whose alumni and faculty are among the participating studios. Programming includes curator-led tours, a podcast series of recorded conversations with the designers, and educational sessions with students; an edited volume with an international architecture press will follow. The exhibition is curated by Yun Fu, faculty at the Harvard GSD and a partner at the studio SEMESTER; Yona Chung, joining the Harvard GSD faculty in fall 2026; and Trinity Tsae-Wei Kao, a Harvard-trained Taiwan architect. Exhibition design is by Prototype Architecture Office.

 

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Exhibition Information

Exhibition: A Temporary Exhibition of Temporal Public Spaces 臨時公共空間的臨時展覽

Venue: Taiwan Design Museum, Gallery 01, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, Taipei

Opening: Afternoon of Monday, 10 August 2026

Public Run: 11 August – 4 October 2026 (closed Mondays)

Admission: NT$100 / NT$80 (groups) / Free (concessions)

Curators: Yun Fu · Yona Chung · Trinity Tsae-Wei Kao

Originally Organized & Presented by: Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Department of Urban Planning and Design

Co-Organized by: Industrial Development Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs

Executed by: Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI)

In Partnership with: Architectural Institute of Taiwan、Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government

In Collaboration with: Chinese Institute of Urban Design · Aesthetic and Design Education Innovation Program

Project Team: Ling Li Tseng · Weizhen Zhang

Supported by: Ministry of Culture, Taipei Cultural Center in New York · Harvard University Asia Center (Southeast Asia Initiative & Thai Studies Program) · Design Trust, Hong Kong

Exhibition Design: Prototype Architecture Office

Participating Studios: Atelier Let's · Atelier TBD · Bangkok Tokyo Architecture · FHHH friends · hidden-domain studio · HYPERSPANDREL · OH DEAR Studio · PRAUD/domansa · SEMESTER · Serendipity Studio · Shen Ting Tseng architects · Sher Maker · SkilLABility · Studio Tngtetshiu · Su Chang Design Research Office