There’s something about Mooi (and Fabrik, too)

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In 1995, Minfu Chien (簡銘甫) headed off to France to study filmmaking. When he arrived, however, he had a change of heart about his plans. Chien spent the next six months traveling through Europe instead — and, near the end of the trip, landed in Berlin, the city that would change his life.

Having always been interested in art and design, Chien immediately felt a connection with the furniture and other objects he saw in the German capital’s flea markets.

“I really regretted not having gone there sooner,” says Chien. He now makes up for lost time, traveling to Berlin regularly to find items for his three vintage furniture stores in Taipei. Two locations are called Mooi (魔椅) and specialize in modernist design from the 1950s to 1970s. Fabrik (加工廠), Chien’s latest project, opened this week near Shandao Temple MRT Station (善導寺捷運站) and spotlights European design from the 1920s to 1950s.

But Chien, whose horn-rimmed glasses and square jaw echo many of the pieces in his store, says he does not feel bound to any particular style or era of design — just as long as it is old.

“It has to do with the patina of the objects,” he says. “And if something is old and is still around, it is because it is special. If it were ordinary, it would have been thrown away. It would not have been taken care of and preserved.”

The first branch of Mooi opened on a tree-lined street in Songshan District (松山區) five years ago. The second branch, off of Qingtian Street (青田街), is also located in a bucolic residential neighborhood. Both contain living room sets, sideboards, dining room tables and chairs arranged as if in someone’s house, with vintage toys, cameras and dishware placed about as accents to evoke a warm, homey feeling, despite the sleek curves and sharp grades in the furniture.

Fabrik, on the other hand, is located in a former factory and contains a range of items meant to appeal to design connoisseurs and collectors. The store’s name pays homage to the former use of the location, as well as an on-site workshop where Chien and other designers will salvage material from old furniture and recycle them into new pieces.

“In Fabrik, I want attention to be paid to each object and the artistry of its design. I want the objects here to have a patina, or a sensual feeling, like they’ve been touched before,” says Chien. He is partial to simple furniture influenced by the Bauhaus school, which emphasized practicality and function. Fabrik’s merchandise reflects that, including a heavy steel desk custom-made in the 1950s for a doctor’s office and a side table with an extending tray that was used in a hospital.

The simplicity of 20th-century German design appeals to Chien. “It is very square and exact, at least in my opinion. It is not very romantic, but the workmanship is very good,” he says. “I think German designers put a lot of research into their designs, so they are very deliberate. Because of that, people tend to undervalue its creativity.”

Chien spends half of each year in Berlin, where he rents a small apartment that is his home base as he travels to other countries in search of wares for his stores.

“I go to flea markets where I’ve gotten to know the vendors and they’ll take me to their garages and warehouses to show me other things,” says Chien. “I like to go from place to place in search of things. I’ll get a friend and we’ll rent a small truck, leave in the morning, and drive around for three or four hours.”