The Design Expo is an annual design event promoted by the Central government of Taiwan. It aims to bring new energy to the local design sector. In 2020, Hsinchu hosted it, i.e., a city that holds a vibrant Science Park and more than 300 years of history. In this context, BIAS transformed the Expo into an urban event. Instead of triggering a single exhibition, this choice brought to temporarily re-imagine a line of places across the city. The aim was to let people experience the diversity of the city and showcase a new urban narrative, two things that finally highlighted design's social power.
BIAS Architects & Associates was established by Han Ju Chen, Chen Jung Liu, and Alessandro Martinelli in 2013. BIAS is interested in public space and identity design where, by uniting spaces and programs, aims at fostering cultural awareness. It is constituted by professional curators, European and Taiwanese practicing architects.
The client is the Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs, which holds yearly the Design Expo event, and the City Government, Hsinchu, that managed it during the 2020 edition. Hsinchu is the seventh-largest city in Taiwan by population and the largest not to be a special municipality.