Tainan, Taiwan
The Circular Economy & Recycling Innovation Center is an immersive exhibition and interior design project that translates complex industrial sustainability systems into a clear, engaging, and emotionally resonant spatial experience.
Circular Economy & Recycling Innovation Center by DigiPuppet Design, won a 2025 Green Good Design Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design, and Urban Studies.
Designed for United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), the project demonstrates how interior environments can become powerful tools for environmental communication, education, and cultural transformation.
Rather than presenting sustainability through static information panels, the Center adopts an experiential exhibition approach, where space itself becomes a narrative device. The interior design is structured as a sequential journey, guiding visitors through the lifecycle of materials within UMC’s circular economy—from waste generation to recovery, reuse, and regeneration. Each zone corresponds to a specific environmental process, enabling visitors to navigate the logic of circularity physically.
Immersive media plays a central role in revealing systems that are normally invisible. Large-scale projections, interactive digital surfaces, and responsive lighting visualize real industrial flows such as wastewater recycling, material purification, and resource reintegration. These dynamic elements are synchronized with spatial transitions, enabling visitors to intuitively understand cause-and-effect relationships between technology, environment, and design. The exhibition transforms data into spatial storytelling, where sustainability is experienced rather than explained.
Interior materials and construction strategies reinforce the project’s environmental intent. Modular display structures are designed for adaptability and reuse, reducing waste during future updates. Energy-efficient lighting and optimized media systems minimize operational consumption. The visual language—characterized by transparency, layered surfaces, and fluid circulation—reflects openness, continuity, and regeneration.
The Center also functions as a green educational environment, bridging corporate innovation and public understanding. By embedding sustainability narratives directly into the architectural and exhibition design, the space communicates environmental responsibility without relying on technical jargon. Visitors of diverse backgrounds can grasp how advanced manufacturing can coexist with ecological stewardship, reinforcing sustainability as an achievable and measurable practice.
Beyond its role as a corporate showroom, the Circular Economy & Recycling Innovation Center represents a new paradigm for green interior and exhibition design. It demonstrates how immersive environments can foster environmental awareness, support behavioral reflection, and elevate sustainability from policy to lived experience. The project positions interior design not as decoration, but as an active agent in promoting circular thinking and long-term environmental responsibility.
Designer: DigiPuppet Design
Design Team: Kai Tzu Lu, Ting-Shuo Yang Yawen Yeh, Yawen Yeh, Obie Lai, Zero Chen, Zueia Lu, CK Lu, and Suntas Hsueh, ULTRACOMBOS
Manufacturer: Team Power Design Co., Ltd.
Client: United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC)
Photographers: Ting-Han (Daniel) Chen
