The 2023 Golden Pin Design Award received a total of 2,324 entries from 15 countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Lithuania, UK and India. Of these entries, 25 were named Best Design winners on 1 December during the award ceremony held at the Globe Playhouse, Taipei Performing Arts Centre. 

Themed ‘Superload’, which explored designers’ desire to break free from conventional constraints despite life challenges, the award ceremony was more impressive than the last. The central stage features an arc arrangement of six movable rectangular displays that presented dynamic visuals for a concert-like effect. Famous Taiwanese actors, singers and music producers performed on stage throughout the evening. But the stars of the show were the award winners.

There are four different categories for the 2023 Golden Pin Design Award: Product Design, Communication Design, Integration Design, and Spatial Design. Competition was fierce in the Spatial Design category and five took top honours. Here are the category’s Best Design winners.

NANA Coffee Roasters Bangna | Thailand
Design: IDIN Architects

The tourist experience is heightend at a branch of the renowned Bangkok coffee brand, Bangna, which simplifies the building’s personality and expression. By incorporating numerous plantings and spatial transparency, it actively blurs the boundaries amongst the architecture, interior and landscape. This approach creates a tranquil atmosphere, providing an escape from the hustle and bustle of urban life and allowing tourists to focus on enjoying their coffee.

The Recycling Centre in Kaohsiung Municipal Guang Wu Primary School | Taiwan
Design: Meta House 

Undulating walls and subtle slopes, extending seamlessly from the landscape, embrace the recycling area. Various plants along well-defined routes create intriguing pathways. Clear and intuitive functional designs and mechanisms ensure a quick grasp of the recycling process. This campus center, once a closed-off and disorderly corner, has transformed into a vital public space, actively engaging with campus life as an educational site.

Shelter Inclusive Place Copal | Japan
Design: onishimaki + hyakudayuki / o+h

The designers created a fully inclusive children’s playground in Yamagata City, Japan. This open recreational space operates like a park, offering a welcoming environment for all children to play happily, irrespective of nationality, home environment, or disability. Wide slopes connect various internal functional spaces, enabling even children who don’t use wheelchairs to run freely.

Rongjin Gorgeous Time Park—Renovation of the Former Official Dormitories of Taihoku Prison | Taiwan
Design: Atelier TimeScape

Historically, the adaptive reuse of historical sites primarily focused on preserving their historical value. However, this project took a proactive approach by delving into the historical context and proposing a vision of collaborative urban regeneration. The complex, interconnected through three mutually interdependent axes of history, life, and city, links to shops, restaurants, community centers, and exhibition spaces. This arrangement enables residents to enjoy life, relax, and wander within the space.

Angsila Oyster Scaffolding Pavillion | Thailand
Design: Chat Architects

To revitalise the local fishing industry in the Thai village of Ang Sila, the community constructed eco-tourism infrastructure. They transformed the traditional bamboo scaffolding used for oyster cultivation into a two-story overwater space. The ground floor serves as an oyster farm, while the upper floor provides tourists with the opportunity to experience seafood. This initiative integrates nature, culture, and tourism, breathing new vitality and development opportunities into old fishing villages. Read more about the project here.

Winning works on exhibit at Taiwan Design Museum

Should you be visiting Taipei, don’t forget to check out the all the winning entries from this year’s Golden Pin Design Award at the Taiwan Design Museum in the Taipei Songshan Cultural and Creative Park. They are showcased in an exhibition called Multidimensional Hyperplasia until 17 March 2024.

Images courtesy of Taiwan Design Research Institute

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