Learning for life ... style

The phrase "culture and creative industry" is loosely bandied about by Taiwan's bureaucrats and museum directors, and can generally be interpreted as how profits are generated by coffee shops on museum or gallery premises or through the sale of handmade ceramic tchotchkes.

This strategy is immediate, but perhaps not durable, as it does not educate the public about culture. By contrast, the recently opened Xue Xue Institute in Neihu adopts a more holistic, if not slightly elitist, approach by providing students with a hands-on learning experience and offers deeper insights into the creative industries with the aim of encouraging visitors to incorporate beauty into their lifestyles while promoting the work of Taiwanese artists, designers and thinkers.

The institute, whose moniker xue (學) is the Mandarin character for learning, was founded by husband and wife team P.S. Lin (林伯實) and Lilin Hsu (徐莉玲) as Taiwan's first private institution to function as a creative hub. Bringing together Taiwan's top talents in the fields of art, design, philosophy, science and business, many of whom are also shareholders in the venture, ensures a high quality learning environment.

Frankfurt-based company e15 designed the interior 10 floors of the Xue Xue Institute by gutting the building and paring it down to a clean aesthetic of white walls and oak furniture. The long oak tables and benches in the restaurant, with one of its walls devoted to a mural that is repainted monthly, creates a vibrant and warm atmosphere that is itself inspiring. The institute takes up 6280m2 in a new building in the Neihu Technology Park that overlooks Keelung River.

Floors three to six contain 27 classrooms and cozy reading areas where a good selection of coffee table books ranging from architecture, art, design and cuisine are on hand. The spaces were designed to be open and comfortable to promote a lively atmosphere for learning and interaction. In addition to four libraries, there are two music classrooms, one lecture hall, a kitchen lab and restaurant.

Kris Lin, the Creative Director and the daughter of founder P.S. Lin oversees the general operation of the institute. "The school is a platform. The founders wanted to do something special for the city, so they started Xue Xue Institute to help educate people in aesthetics, beauty and design," she said.

Classes are held on a range of subjects including marketing and branding, which teaches students how products are merchandised. The cuisine art course, which wouldn't sound out of place on a Swiss finishing school curriculum, taught by Thomas Seller, instructs students how to dress, order, tip and behave in a top-notch French restaurant and how to prepare various European dishes.

The kitchen lab has two huge ovens, refrigerators and stoves and along with the restaurant can be rented out for parties and wedding banquets.

The ECOH restaurant is open 9am to 9pm daily and serves dishes made with organic ingredients. The philosophy of ECOH Restaurant and Kitchen Lab is to remind people of the intrinsic beauty of food prepared in the simplest manner and to help awaken the senses by using the freshest ingredients.

Numerous lectures by Taiwan's leading lights in fashion and politics such as designer Isabelle Wen (溫慶珠) and talk show hostess Sisy Chen (陳文茜) are on offer. There are workshops for children, but to prevent the facility being turned into a creche, parents are required to accompany their offspring.