The real beauty lies not in the space design, but in the life experience: “Learn the beauty. Aesthetics – Campus aesthetic design practice plan” field visit experience

It is a great honor to be invited to participate in the media group on April 6th of the Taiwan Design Institute’s 111 year ” Aesthetics. Aesthetics-Campus Aesthetic Design Practice Project ” to visit the campus renovation results of three schools. I’m not in the media, so I’ll only give a brief introduction. Mainly to share personal observations and feelings. It does not represent the views of the school, design team or design institute.

Xiluo Junior High School in Yunlin County｜Best Bakery

The transformation of Xiluo Junior High School is the catering classroom and baking classroom in the shared space of the Career Exploration and Experience Demonstration Center (hereinafter referred to as the Career Exploration Center). This job search center is a regional job search center, which means that other schools will also use it. It had been in use for a year when we visited, and overall it worked well.

Two-thirds of the entire space is catering classrooms. Kitchen cabinets, tables and chairs, hardware, doors and windows are all updated. Kind of like a modern shared kitchen. Most teachers and students may not have such a beautiful environment in their homes.

In addition to the appearance, the function is also taken care of. For example, the storage function of the kitchen cabinet drawers, the shelf for hanging aprons and backpacks, the mirror above the workbench so that students can see the teacher’s demonstration on the workbench, and the stainless steel tabletop of the original classroom but with the table legs replaced.

The other third of the space is designed as a coffee shop with a bar counter, which is used as a career test for catering services. The bar itself is also the partition of the two areas.

Catering services attach great importance to the overall experience, not just meals and drinks. Since it is a career exploration, it is necessary to have a full set of experience in order to inspire students’ interest and imagination in the industry. This is what I think is the greatest value of this renovation project.

We eat in the meal service classroom at noon. I took the time to observe nearby. I happened to see students carrying their lunch back to the classroom from the lunch kitchen opposite. The brightest smiles of middle school students always appear during meal time. Lunch is not just to fill the stomach, but also to relax and socialize.

This also happens to be the main context of meal service. People know how to enjoy life, and related industries will thrive. Not only the teaching and job hunting environment of meal service needs to be improved, but also the daily life of teachers and students, such as the experience of “eating well”, also needs to be redesigned. It may not be necessary to spend a lot of money to renovate the space, and perhaps through the adjustment of procedures and rituals, good results can also be achieved. Maybe every class can have at least one lunch in the meal service center every semester?

Passed by this space next to the central garden on exit and took this photo. Many corners of the campus of Xiluo Junior High School are already beautiful without renovation.

Changhua County Hudong Elementary School｜Light Shed Project

The renovation project of Hudong Elementary School is the original rhythm classroom in the activity center. The space has gone through various uses and previously served as a storage room. Before that, it was a sports-related function. Hudong Elementary School used to be quite involved in the training of competitive sports, but recently it has put more emphasis on the sports and health of all students.

This renovation project transforms the original space into a multi-functional space suitable for both movement and stillness. After all empty, it can be used for dance class and physical education class. Can also be used for static events such as exhibitions. Removing the low wall and replacing it with floor-to-ceiling glass windows also connects the classroom and hallway space.

When reporting, the Director of General Affairs expressed the hope that this space would be an opportunity to spread “beauty”. Let teachers and students think about whether the space of daily school life can be changed accordingly.

The nature of the activity center where the space is located is similar to that of a gymnasium, except for the meeting place and the stadium. Outside is the playground. I also took a little time to go to the playground to observe. As soon as I arrived at the playground, I saw a group of children running happily on the playground. This picture is so beautiful.

Campus renovation should start with the end in mind, so as not to be limited to a single space and see the forest for the trees. Using exercise and health promotion as an example, the question to ask is: what kind of physical activity do children need to be healthy (which is the goal)? What behaviors can be triggered by the school’s software and hardware environment, and what can’t be done? How to transform the process and environment to trigger more physical activity and get closer to the goal? This environment is not necessarily a physical environment, it may also be a social environment.

Even if the renovation target is limited to a single space, a holistic view must be established first. After taking a complete inventory of educational resources and goals (including the parts that are not related to this space at first glance), you may find that it may not be the best practice to directly continue the original function.

Sunshine Elementary School in Hsinchu City｜Today I want to move a big building block!

The renovation target of Sunshine Elementary School was originally an indoor public space. The transformation of the design team is basically to reduce fixed objects and increase the flexibility of space use with movable furniture. Of course, there is unavoidable, low-saturation color matching.

The presentation of the day was also held in this space. Judging from the actual use situation, there is no problem with functionality and comfort. But this color scheme is really depressed for elementary school. I guess there are also some problems with the communication between the design team and the school.

I remember that the director of general affairs reported that he was asked by the design team “what are the pain points of the school”, but the director of general affairs didn’t know what “pain points” were, and the designer might not have explained them to him. Pain points should not be asked directly, but deduced by the designer after a complete research. Designers can’t just “ask the school to come up with a question”, you must have the ability to investigate the entire school and context, and redefine the question.

Because this is the last stop of the itinerary, and we have to catch the high-speed train after that, the stay at Sunshine Elementary School is very short. I finally took five minutes to go around the campus to see the real (unmodified) environment and users.

I was still in the corridor, and I saw this scene outside the door from a distance. Yes, dirt paths, ancient houses and bamboo forests! Tell me, which elementary school has such a beautiful view! Later, I asked the school, and this courtyard was transformed into a classroom three years ago.

What surprised me the most was this stepped square surrounded by big trees. It coincides with school time, and students just sit in twos and threes, chatting or playing, waiting for their parents to pick them up. This picture is so beautiful.

Take a closer look. Do you think this picture is more beautiful, more real, more natural, more energetic, more accepting and tolerant than this renovation project?

Zoom out a little further. Look at this piece of green, this corner is also amazing. And children at this age just have endless energy to release. And what better place than an open space outside?

It has been less than 20 years since Sunshine Elementary School was completed and opened. Many concepts and constructions are already very modern (I later learned that this school is an online beauty spot in Hsinchu). Talking about “transformation” in such an environment is inherently difficult. There are so many young schools like this in Hsinchu. Of course, it does not mean that there is no need for renovation. After all, the design of the school often does not meet the needs from the beginning. But in the face of this relatively “modern” school, the design team did not do their homework very seriously, so it is easy to design for the design and worry about the new words.

lion tourism

The visit this time is the same as the visit in 2011. The Institute of Design and Research rented a tour bus from Xiongshi Tourism. The car that came this time was the Naruto-painted tour bus. I haven’t even ridden on Taiwan Railway’s Mingri version. As Ai Shuting, vice president of the Institute of Design and Research, said before, the cars of the aesthetic group should also be beautiful.

Touring cars are an industry I am quite familiar with. What matters is safety and experience. Just like last time, the ride experience this time is still very good.

epilogue

When I visited last year, I mentioned that there is a big blind spot in this method of “inviting the school to come up with questions and setting up a research institute to select a team to solve the questions”. That is, the value of the design is determined almost entirely by the value of the problem. If the school questions are well formulated and solved well, it is a good design. The questions given by the school are not good, no matter how well you solve them, it is still a bad design.

I see a lot of cases being scolded, not because the designer did something wrong, but because the problem was not good from the beginning. If you try to hard solve a problem that is wrong and of low value, the output will be worthless. But the external attribution will be that your design is not good, not that the school gave you a bad question.

Designers and architects still focus on “objects”. They do observe users, but only at the level of interaction with design objects. Very rudimentary functionality. There is little touch on the question behind the question, and the value of the question in context. So you may not notice that there is something wrong with the problem you want to solve.

The truth is, schools often don’t really know what their most important needs are. What the school thinks it needs may not be really valuable. And what the school really needs, they may not realize it themselves. In fact, most people are like this.

This is why user research is important. Only when you have a complete understanding of a school will you have the opportunity to discover the really important needs. This will be an independent process. But with the current cooperation model, I can’t figure out how to add it.

I think my suggestion is still the same: use these experiments to figure out a set of principles that combine the needs and solutions of all parties, learn lessons from less successful cases, and find direction from well-done cases. This will get better and better every year.

further reading

• Not just beauty: “Learning Beauty. Aesthetics—Campus Aesthetic Design Practice Project” field visit experience (110 years)