「二三國際 X 拾號空間製作所」於天際間築起皓白底景，打造孵化靈感的沃土
基本的形體是美的，因其清晰的本質易於識讀
—— 勒・柯比意
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Light is the most honest language available to an architect or interior designer. It reveals the rhythm of proportions and mirrors the soul of a space. When light falls and shifts, the order and emotion of a domain are born. Here, time is no longer a linear unit of passing moments but is carved into distinct scenes through the transitions of light and shadow.
Using this philosophy as his instrument, Jeffrey Chang, Director of 23 Design × 10 Engineering, employs light and negative space as his primary vocabulary. Within the dialectic of "Rationality × Sensibility," he has sketched a sanctuary where thoughts can settle—a penthouse workspace in the Taoyuan Jingguo Special District. This space blends the poetry and emotion of design with the precision and order of engineering, serving as a tangible distillation of the brand's core philosophy. Chang believes that an office should not exist solely for functional work; it must be a spiritual soil where culture and lifestyle converge and sediment.
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The Balance of Rationality and Sensibility
"The design industry is high-pressure and fast-paced," Chang notes. "The primary mission of this space is to allow for decompression and relief, thereby sparking inspiration."
For him, the ideal office must possess both efficiency and emotion. It is a structure of "movement and stillness running in parallel"—possessing the order and precision required by reason, yet maintaining the blank space and warmth essential to sensibility.
To ground this balance, a palette of greys and whites was chosen to return the space to its purest background: clean, stable, and capable of holding various emotions. This neutral canvas accommodates different work rhythms and lifestyles, allowing light, materiality, and human thought to flow freely. The workspace is infused with the multiple functions of a home: the quiet of a study, the exchange of a living room, and the intimacy of a dining area. Here, designers dine, discuss, and rest, naturally interweaving professional focus with the rhythm of life.
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Creating Tension within Minimalist Details
For Jeffrey Chang, clean minimalism is an order that achieves detail. In this interior space of approximately 100 square meters (30 ping), "restraint" is the central axis. A selection of four distinct coatings builds layers of texture, ensuring that both vision and touch remain rich with expression despite the minimalist approach.
The main walls and ceiling feature Italian mineral coatings; their smooth texture allows light to drift slowly across the surface, presenting a nearly soft-focus quality. In contrast, three structural volumes that do not reach the ceiling—the foyer screen, the material display wall, and the functional corridor—are clad in a limestone coating with a stronger, granular grain. This juxtaposition imbues the tranquility of the space with underlying tension.
The foyer screen acts as the first transition of rhythm, shielding the view of the conference room while reserving a quiet wall for art and shadow to converse. Between the material wall and the functional corridor, a light-filled passage is subtly constructed. Two restrooms and a storage room are cleverly concealed behind these structures, softening the utilitarian aspects within the spatial order and allowing the thoughtfulness of life to emerge naturally.
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The philosophy of light is the cornerstone of the space’s soul. The original structure boasted a clearance of over five meters. Chang leveraged this by gathering the ceiling into a graceful curve that settles at 3.6 meters. This not only balances the visual proportions but creates the illusion that the entire office area is suspended by a layer of light air.
Notably, the curved ceiling of the work area is devoid of recessed downlights. All illumination is provided by indirect lighting, pendant lamps, and floor lamps, allowing light to float gently like mist, altering the atmosphere and expression of the room as time passes. In the conference area and bar, color temperature and brightness are adjustable, allowing the space to switch between rigor and relaxation, reflecting different moods at different moments.
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An Urban Island of Serenity
The external terrace, spanning approximately 66 square meters (20 ping), is the design’s most cherished extension—a quiet island hidden within the city skyline.
Surrounded on three sides by tropical vegetation—Frangipani, Bird of Paradise, and Silver Velvet (Messerschmidia argentea)—the terrace forms a soft, private boundary. At dawn, eastern sunlight filters through the leaves, casting fragmented, dancing shadows. In the evening, the sunset reflects off the curtain wall of the building across the street, projecting a golden glow into the interior. The walls become a canvas for light, where tree shadows sway gently against the texture of the mineral paint, creating a poetic scene that exists only at specific moments.
On this green-enveloped terrace, the team hosts lectures, enjoys open-air cinema, gathers for parties, or simply spaces out. By day, it is filled with flowing light; by night, it shifts into a soft halo. As daylight recedes, solar lights slowly illuminate, rendering the terrace warm and still in the darkness—a rare moment of peace in the bustling city.
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Retrieving Precision and Warmth with Beginner’s Mind
For Jeffrey Chang, "23 Design × 10 Engineering" is more than a brand extension; it is an experiment in returning to the essence of design. Centered on "Original Intention, Precision, and Warmth," he seeks the equilibrium between the rational and the emotional through light and emptiness.
This space does not pursue ostentatious forms. Instead, through every proportion, corner, and material, it allows order and emotion to coexist, enabling people to think in stillness and settle in light. Ultimately, it returns to a state of calm. Within the rhythm of the everyday, as light and shadow move slowly and the space transforms with them, it reminds us that design is never just about form—it is a way of understanding time and life.
