W Taipei Trash Re-Design Project

W Taipei Launched Stylish “Jewelry Holder” from “Trash Re-Design” Project

Taipei, Taiwan – (March 4^th, 2015) After 12 months, W Taipei finally launched the long-awaited eco-designed “Jewelry Holder” in February, 2015. The design piece is one of the final selected items of “Trash Re-design Taiwan Design Center (TDC) x W Taipei” in 2013, created by talented Taiwan designer Fanny Kuo and made from the hotel recycled Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS), otherwise known as an empty water bottle. From now on, the hotel guests may place their fashion accessories on the “Jewelry Holder” when they stay at one of the 405 guest rooms at W Taipei. On the other hand, the stylish product is available at W Hotels -The Store on level 10 at TWD2,800 for the guests who love it so much and want to take it home. For more details, please visit wtaipei.com/wstore.

“I’m so thrilled to see Jewelry Holder coming to life from the scratch. It’s a perfect product marrying Design and Fashion into one piece and a self-served in-room-amenity to enhance the guest experience, especially for our fashion-forward female travelers.” shared by Cary M. Gray, General Manager of W Taipei.

“Jewelry Holder” is inspired by “Nature Electrified”, the dynamic design narrative of W Taipei, and not only a sustainability design piece but also a fabulous yet functional product. In the past year of 2014, it was definitely a learning journey for W Taipei and Fanny Kuo, brand director of CACHE-CACHE Design, who had never used the recycled material before. The time-consuming process consisted of meetings with the design firm to go through the plastic injection, tooling, alteration of the tree-shape curves and angles, ultrasonic bonding for the parting lines, W-red color painting, test run, and the final mass production. In the end, the glossy and seamless product has checked in the guest room and dedicated to the service at W Taipei.

“Trash Re-design TDC x W Taipei” transformed used plastic items, such as water bottles, in-room slippers, bath amenities at W Taipei, into green materials with the sustainability expertise from Miniwiz. Then the 7 teams of talented Taiwan designers applied theses materials to the trendy items that would once again be used back to W Taipei. The project had also implemented the successful green initiative to W Hotels in Asia Pacific and participated “Business of Design Week” sponsored by W Hong Kong.

During the 4-month design workshop in 2013, designers had been faced with challenges, including meeting the needs of the hotel and unique design style, demonstrating the features of the green materials, and developing protocols for mass production. Therefore, in producing design, 3D prototypes, and mockups, designers had been constantly thinking innovatively. Involving different industries and expertise, this project was unprecedented in the hospitality industry in Taiwan. Through the world-renowned enterprise, the designers demonstrated Taiwan’s design, a soft power of Taiwan, to the world.

As a leading design hotel with a passion of Fashion, Music and Design, W Taipei has been devoted itself to environmental sustainable development while still providing 5-star service standard. The hotel produces more than 300,000 used plastic bottles each year. Therefore, conducting this green design project is the best innovative solution to alleviate the environmental pollution caused by the daily waste.