Purity · Essence at Songshan through October 31: 50 iF-winning designs and everyday materials

A cup handle or the ingredients of a slipper can affect use more directly than an elaborate appearance. Purity · Essence: 2026 iF Design Award Winners Exhibition (V) runs October 6–31 at iF DESIGN SALON TAIPEI in Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, bringing together 50 winning works from Taiwan and around the world. This currently running selection moves from everyday products and outdoor equipment to furniture and appliances, returning design to concrete needs and objects’ life cycles.

Fifty exhibits, rather than the entire annual series

The organizer places this show within a series promoting Taiwan’s award-winning designs that began in April. The annual plan includes three talks and six themed exhibitions exploring approximately 500 works. Purity · Essence is one of those exhibitions; 500 is not the number on site. Its theme asks how restrained design responds to genuine needs, bringing everyday objects, sports, pet products and furniture into a shared discussion.

The official preview includes a rocking slow-feeding bowl combining an aluminum-alloy bowl with a base made using reclaimed solid-wood waste and aluminum, its form referencing the infinity symbol. A natural bamboo-fiber cup starts from an easy-to-grip body and a perforated handle. Both examples place behavior beside material choice: one addresses eating pace, the other everyday portability, rather than merely recoloring an existing vessel.

Where can coffee grounds and waste tea leaves go?

For the re-ing Bamboo Fiber Cup, the official iF shop lists bamboo fiber and plant-based starch, with coffee grounds added to the brown version. It measures 8.6 × 6.2 × 5.8 cm, weighs 54 g, is made in Taiwan and was designed by DOTdesign. A hole in the handle accommodates a cord, and geometric facets appear on the base. This is a specific material-and-structure combination, not evidence that every cup labeled bamboo fiber has the same formulation.

Another official preview pairs plastic-reduced slippers incorporating tea powder with a regenerable dehumidifying fabric using plant-derived cellulose moisture-absorbing coating and a carrier containing recycled materials. They bring recycling and reuse beneath the feet, into cabinets and into everyday objects. Useful exhibition questions include where materials originate, how objects are handled after use and whether parts can be replaced or repaired. Recycled content and natural decomposition in every environment are different questions.

Free entry, with gallery hours distinct from park hours

The exhibition is at iF DESIGN SALON TAIPEI, A7 W207, on the second floor of the west tobacco factory at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, 133 Guangfu South Road, Xinyi District, Taipei. It opens Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., closes Sundays and is free through October 31. The park’s outdoor grounds opening 24 hours does not mean the upstairs salon can be visited at night. Plan using the gallery’s hours rather than the park’s general access times.

Read the official iF exhibition introduction for the theme and previews, then search interesting product names in the award database for design backgrounds. The published product previews and cup details offer clues to materials, handles and base construction; they are not installation photographs taken on a visit by this publication. If buying, distinguish the official shop’s product pages from the physical exhibition. Free admission does not imply every work is sold on-site; dimensions, prices and supply remain matters for product information.