Lee Po-yi, fifth year, Dept. of Architecture, beat students from 250 countries and won the “formZ Joint Study Program” international design prize with his humorous “Stress-releasing Office Equipment.” Lee will receive the prize at Georgia, USA, along with other winners from all over the world. He acknowledged the unique directorship of Dr. Chen Chen-cheng, chair of Dept. of Architecture.

Lee designs his work with “formZ” software. The apparatuses in his stress-freeing design include a air-tight room for yelling, movable file closet for beauty-goggling, mobile bar, screen saver with Taichi movement, a wheeling room for jogging, and tram room with shooting supplies. The critics praise his work for its humor and a SF flavor in the style of “The Fifth Element” by Luc Besson.

Lee is very surprised to know that he is the only Taiwanese student among the competitors from 250 universities all over the world to win the prize. His award-winning design is part of his assignments in “Architectural Design” course, in which the teacher, Dr. Chen Chin-cheng, sets “City Nomad” as subject and asks students to design six accouterments for people working in the busy city. Lee focuses his “Stress-releasing Office Equipment” on “inspiring the nine-to-fiver with fun and stress-freeing breath.”

The “formZ Joint Study Program” international design competition is hosted by the “formZ” software company. The company invites 250 universities all over the world to attend the yearly competition, which includes eight sub-divisions: architecture, interior design, city landscaping, industrial design, animation, visual art design. The judges are selected from the experts in the fields of architecture, industrial design, and computer animation. Lee is the second TKU student to win the prize in this competition. The first one was Lee Yueh-hong with his 2001 design, “Info Box.” (~ Chi-szu Chen )