Mention roadside transformers to most people in Taipei, and the first thing that likely comes to mind is the regulation dark green or stippled landscape covers they have. These transformers are indispensable public utilities, and Taipei has more than 9,000 padmount transformers dotted around. But because they are usually found to be, shall we say, wanting in beauty, many people consider them a blot on the cityscape.
Now, Taipei City Government has launched several projects to give Taipei’s cityscape a face-lift. One of them was to remodel the padmount transformers.
Agua Design, the team charged with improving the looks of the city’s transformers, wanted to have them blend in more with their surroundings. They rethought the color palette and reduced the size of the yellow warning signs on them, wanting to relieve the visual stress they placed on pedestrians.
Photo: Ethan Zhan, Taipei Times
照片:台北時報詹豐造
Ms. Chen, who works in finance, has her office on the bustling Songjiang Road. She has noticed several changes on the sidewalks she uses every day. “In the past I found the transformers to be real eyesores, despite the flowers and grass painted on them,” Chen said.
Now, the padmount transformers on Songjiang Road are wearing new clothes. Grey tones, conveying a sense of style, replace the uniform green and floral paintings. Their low profile helps them blend in with their surroundings.
“Rather than just complaining about everything,” said Chou Yu-ju, founder of Agua Design, “I decided to do something about it, and got involved in changing the look of the city.” Chou recalls how fussy she was about everything in Taipei a decade ago, before she decided to take the bull by the horns and help revamp the place.
Photo: Ethan Zhan, Taipei Times
照片:台北時報詹豐造
Source: CHANG HUAN-PENG, Department of Information and Tourism,
Taipei City Government, originally in the Taipei Pictorial, edition 582.(Translated by Ethan Zhan, Taipei Times)
制式的深綠色或是斑駁的山水彩繪圖案,是一般民眾對變電箱的第一印象。變電箱是一個現代化城市不可或缺的公共設施,台北市便有九千多座變電箱。但這些變電箱通常沒有什麼美感,因而被很多人認為有礙市容觀瞻。
台北市政府現正推動多項台北城市生活景觀改造計畫,美化變電箱就是其中之一。
負責美化變電箱的水越設計團隊透過色彩的改造,讓變電箱和周遭的建築物產生和諧的整體感,同時縮小原有的黃色警告圖示,以降低行人的視覺負擔。
從事金融業的陳小姐,工作地點位於車水馬龍的松江路上,最近她發現每天行經的人行道,有了不一樣的改變。「以前總覺得變電箱設置在路上好礙眼,雖然上面畫著花花草草,我還是覺得不漂亮。」
現在,松江路上的變電箱重新換上新裝,以充滿設計感的漸層灰色,取代制式化的深綠色及花草圖案,低調地和環境融為一體。
「與其當一個批評者,不如實際參與設計這座城市。」水越設計創辦人周育如回想起十多年前,那一個對台北什麼都不滿意的自己,在轉念後,決定劍及履及以實際行動改變這個城市。
文/張煥鵬,臺北市政府觀光傳播局《台北畫刊》第582期
(台北時報詹豐造英譯)
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