Industry News

DongShanDesign: At the Heart of Taiwan's Woodworking Industry for more than Half a Century

DongShanDesign Wood Works is a lumber factory which has over 50 years of history. In the early days, the main business involved cutting log products. However, since the 1980s, the company has focused on the production of natural and exotic wood tables and chairs and has established its own store. In recent years, it has created a wood art studio showcasing timber, tables and chairs, and custom-made furniture.

The ‘Detailed Conversion of Timber’ is a very special industry. A person's life is inseparable from the company of wooden products: from cribs and rocking horses at the beginning of life, to stair railings, dining tables and chairs as well as furniture for families at all ages and stages to coffins after the end of our life. Yet, before these products are manufactured and enter our homes, the logs need to be harvested and seasoned first. The primary source for processing these logs is the "timber making" industry and DongShanDesign is at the forefront of it.

From the moment logging was banned in 1979, this industry that had once flourished in Taiwan almost crashed in just a few years. In the next few decades, only imported timber was permitted and very few businesses were left. Taiwanese wood almost disappeared.

(This is a corner of the store, displaying and selling all kinds of log table boards and furniture made at the lumber factory.)

(This equipment has been in operation for nearly 60 years. It is a witness to the golden age of prosperity in Taiwan’s wood industry before its decline. It is still in operation today.)

Among the only remaining lumber mills, Dongshan survived and has thrived. It has been passed down through three generations and continues to produce high-quality lumber to this day. Not only does Dongshan have the very best equipment, but also the largest number of active lumber mills in Taiwan. Facing the decrease in demand for timber, Dongshan makes good use of special industrial timber technology, so that it can be used in a more complete way. It uses a variety of wood, bark, sleepers or old materials as elements, integrates creative ideas into its designs thereby giving woodwork an abundance of original looks.

If there are no logs for the timber industry in the future, Dongshan may go down the road of becoming a tourism factory, but before that happens Dongshan is doing its best to preserve the heritage of this industry. It is committed to staying on its current path, to serve everyone to the best of its ability and to ensure that the memory of Taiwan's once great wood industry lives on well into the 21st century.