Classroom Transformation Movement launched by Taiwanese Designers

Taiwanese Designers Launch an Aesthetics Movement From “Classroom Transformation” to “Education System Reform”

“Design Movement on Campus” is a collaboration between the Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) with the goal of assisting senior high/vocational high schools, junior high schools, and elementary schools across the country in selecting professional design teams to transform school campuses together, and innovating educational thinking and solutions through design thinking to reconsider the meaning of educational sites. Since the project’s inception in 2019, “Design Movement on Campus 1.0” has converted 55 schools into beautiful demonstration schools, winning important international and domestic design accolades such as Japan’s Good Design Award and Germany’s iF and German Design Awards.

This year, “Design Movement on Campus 3.0” collaborates with 25 schools and chooses 21 design teams to access educational locations and carry out transformational tasks. The design teams not only carry out spatial transformations for various theme classes, such as music, art, or carpentry, but they also undertake functional and environmental experiments on campus, such as the compound cafeteria, signage system, and outdoor multipurpose space.

Classroom Transformation Movement launched by Taiwanese Designers — Top: Zhongxiao Elementary School Before and After the Transformation Bottom: Nanhe Elementary School Before and After the Transformation

The Food and Agriculture Classroom at Zhongxiao Elementary School in Taichung was initially too small.
Teachers and students had to relocate furniture to the corridor for classes, and storage and meal item preparation were also inefficient. “Office AAA” introduces situational design imagination through the flow of service design, and significantly expands the classroom space by exposing some kitchen furniture, connecting outdoor space through large window frames, and creating diverse arrangements of desks and chairs, allowing teachers and students to use the classroom with greater flexibility. This is one of the greatest examples of organic units formed by the flow of service design in a classroom.

Nanhe Elementary School in Miaoli County, on the other hand, revealed a design necessity that previous design teams had never encountered: chicken coop restoration. Originally, there was no obvious boundary between the chicken coop and the leaf compost area, making it difficult to use the chicken coop as an educational site. “Whispace Studio” creates a shaped ecological site of food and agriculture beneath the Taiwanese oak, joining and generating an unbroken flow of traffic from the coop, tree, food and agricultural garden, and compost space with a smooth and curving white metal fence.

Each hen has its own nametag and egg tray, integrating life education into students’ learning; instructors and students may also witness hen habits and lives from close quarters. Furthermore, the initiative establishes an ecological, food, and agricultural teaching facility where instructors, students, and community members may grow and learn with the chickens.

“Design Movement on Campus 3.0” has launched the “Design Movement on Campus Online Exhibition” (website: campusfield.design.org.tw), overcoming the barriers of space and distance to showcase all of the project’s achievements over the past three years; additionally, by continuously accumulating cases over the years, the project hopes to provide an open platform of aesthetics transformation learning, calling for more professionals.