Taiwan, China - Recent

1. Zhou Yuru working in AGUA studio

2. Mid of entrance of AGUA studio

3. Zhou Yuru talking with other

4. Stone calendar washed by pouring water

5. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Zhou Yuru, designer and founder of AGAU Design

"Made of stone powder, the paper owns a unique texture that feels quite different from the traditional paper. It doesn’t have transverse fibers inside, so it could be soaked in water for fairly long. And then it becomes so smooth as if it's covered with a layer of moss."

6. Video from website showing student testing water-resistent paper

7. Pan of products displayed in AGUA studio

8. Pan of handbooks displayed

9. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Zhou Yuru, designer and founder of AGAU Design

"Only a practical master piece could attract interactions with consumers. And our products should be aesthetic at least 10 years even 15 years at most. They would never be downgraded in terms of quality."

10. Close of handbooks designed

11. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Zhou Yuru, designer and founder of AGAU Design (overlaid with shots 12):

"Tang Dynasty is a very representative period of time in the Chinese history, with abundant cultural connotation,We want to find a figure good enought to represent the Palace Museum and able to tell stories on its behalf. So I design Fe Fe."

++SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++

12. Zhou Yuru showing handbook with iamge Fe Fe

++SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++

13. Pan of city scene

14. Various of Scenes of yellow chairs in Taipei

15. Various of pictures of water pipes

16. Various of pictures of cloud and Taipei city

17. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Zhou Yuru, designer, founder of AGAU Design

"It would make the city more meaningful if everyone could do something as you take yourself as part of the project. And you grow up as yeast ferments and all us together could make the city even more interesting."

18.Various of urban scene

An innovation project put forward by established Taiwan designer Zhou Yuru has been met with up to 2,500 proposals schemed for improving residential environment and urban life in general.



Some 800 local designers responded to "City Yeast", a project Zhou initiated in 2006.



Among the famed achievements for the designer in her 30s are a kind of washable paper and unique image Fe Fe for the Taipei Palace Museum.



Zhou holds that Innovation makes life better while offering numerous business opportunities. With such an idea, she has established her own design style from an initiative to make designs for handbooks.



Probably nobody would have believed that a sheet of paper could stand washing. But Zhou has made it. Her washable paper made of stone powder would not snap apart in water. And this "stone calendar”is also a product out of her studio AGUA Design.



"Made of stone powder, the paper owns a unique texture that feels quite different from the traditional paper. It doesn’t have transverse fibers inside, so it could be soaked in water for fairly long. And then it becomes so smooth as if it's covered with a layer of moss,"said Zhou.



After her studies of design in France, Zhou Yuru founded her studio named AGUA Design in Paris 17 years ago, which moved to Taiwan in 1996. The AGUA Design features a team of designs with experiences at different parts of Europe. Because of her love for paper, Zhou designed handbook as the first step.



As Zhou puts it, each and every designer has to ask such questions as whether the product is practical or whether it's aesthetic for long. Every designers in ASGUA is required to think over these points before starting a design.



"Only a practical master piece could attract interactions with consumers. And our products should be aesthetic at least 10 years even 15 years at most. They would never be downgraded in terms of quality," said Zhou.



It came out as a really unique design when Zhou put forward a fully folding handbook with traditional thread binding that presents a sharp style of Chinese tradition. But all the more attractive is an image named Fe Fe Zhou had designed for Taipei Palace Museum. The inspiration comes from traditional Chinese painting of beautiful ancient ladies in Tang Dynasty dating more than 1,000 years back into ancient China.



“Tang Dynasty is a very representative period of time in the Chinese history, with abundant cultural connotation," said Zhou Yuru. "We want to find a figure good enough to represent the Palace Museum and able to tell stories on its behalf. So I design Fe Fe,” she said.



Based on the concept that designers should make contributions to society, Zhou and the AGUA team launched the long-term project "City Yeast”, with the hope that people could be inspired to take more care of their environment and could grow up a love of the surroundings.



Among more than 2,500 responding proposals is one called Yellow Chair Blossom, which could be taken as an invitation to Taipei residents to make their own yellow chairs to enliven the city. Generations of Taipei residents celebrated their creations in a Taipei park, with a veritable explosion of color and community spirits. In addition, the bright yellow chairs were exhibited at various metropolitan locations, playing an inspiring role to all passing by.



Six chairs adorn a street with many lanes which features a harmonious life shared by senior residents and artists. Some chairs are inset up a wall. The chairs have their own names, such as “Treasure Seat”for one to climb on board for a better view of the scenery below and “Fortune CooKiss”for sweethearts. The projects encourages not only real designs but also a passion for an even better life.



Colorful water pipes exhibited in Taipei's commercial center are aimed at making people more aware of saving water, which is open to all visitors.



This year, Zhou initiated a project called“Catch Cloud Marathon”on her website. Anyone with a photo of the city and cloud overhead is eligible to submit.



“It would make the city more meaningful if everyone could do something as you take yourself as part of the project. And you grow up as yeast ferments and all us together could make the city even more interesting," said the founder of AGUA.



While inviting Taipei residents to contribute ideas for improving the city, Project“City Yeast”also offers various opportunities to realize these innovative ideas.