Marn وسائل الراحة في الفندق

Press Kit

Unique Properties

Marn, pronunciation in mandarin means fulfillment in Chinese culture. The design was inspired by cultural heritage related to Tainan traditional local snacks and foods. Wishing to preserve the culture and widespread to the world by transforming the famous local festive snacks into hotel amenities, like; turtle-shaped rice cake into hand soap & soap dish, mung bean cake into toiletries, tang yuan sweet dumpling into hand cream and steamed bun & Tainan brown sugar bun cake into tea set. All were hand crafted in ceramic which looks identical to the festive snacks.

Dimensions & Packaging

Turtle-shaped rice cake / hand soap & soap dish L120mm x W60mm x H16mm
Mung bean cake / toiletries L200mm x W80mm x H10mm
Tang Yuan sweet dumpling / Hand cream L100mm x W100mm x H23mm
Steamed bun & Tainan brown sugar bun cake / tea set L300mm x W300mm x H55mm

Tags

Hotel amenities, Daily necessities, Gift, Ceramics, Cultural Hotel

Production Technology

All were handcrafted.
Material used is white ceramic.

Design Challenge

Most of the hotel amenities typically the same, the most challenging issue in this project is to design a set of amenities derived from local culture festive snacks for The Place, a design hotel brand of Royal Hotels & Resorts, that sets to connect with local cultures of Tainan. Handcrafted pottery, kiln formation and have to be identical to the festive snacks is the hardest part. The team managed to create the products lifelike the real snacks.

Research

Type of Research: Hotel amenities with local culture image
Research Objectives: To preserve and to propagate culture heritage of Tainan festive snacks from local to global.
Methodology: culture study and morphological analysis, Image Scale.
Data Collections: Market Survey, Target User Analysis.
Research Tools: Solidworks, Sketch-Up, 3D Printing.
Production Method: pinching pottery, glazing, kiln formation.

Inspiration

Having inspiration from the festive snacks of traditional Tainan culture, an old city in Taiwan full with cultural heritage; turtle-shaped rice cake, mung bean cake, tang yuan sweet dumpling and steamed bun & Tainan brown sugar bun cake, transforming the snacks image into a set of hotel amenities, Tainan culture heritage could be spread to the whole world as the hotel is a nice platform to promote local culture.

Project Duration

This project started in Sept 2017 in Tainan, estimate to finish in March 2018, having its first appearance in Taiwan Young Designers' Exhibition (YODEX) in May 2018.

Operation Flow

Since the set of hotel amenities lifelike the festive snacks, travelers will find them very interesting when checking into the room, eventually they will look for each of the item connected to the cultures behind it. The cultural hotel served as the platform to communicate with travelers from everywhere, allowing them to learn and to feel the culture heritage of Tainan in an interesting way during their stay, could be better appreciated and shared amongst travelers.

Patents

patent pending

Image Credits

Wei-Che Chiang
Tainan University of Technology/Product Design Department