Taipei Municipal Xinhu Elementary School ｜Circle of Care

"Enter into children's play, and you will find the place where their minds, hearts, and souls meet."

— Virginia M. Axline

Xinhu Elementary School originally had only one counseling room used for both individual sessions and group guidance, yet the space was no different from a regular classroom. As student mental health has drawn increasing attention in recent years, the demand for counseling related to interpersonal relationships, family issues, academics, and emotional management has risen significantly. The school therefore hoped to expand beyond the original counseling room and create two additional spaces to provide a more comprehensive, friendly, and open psychological support environment for students.

Creating a Reassuring and Healing Counseling Space Through Circular Spatial Language

Drawing inspiration from the school’s ecological pond, Xinhu Lake Garden, the designer adopted the circle as the core design motif, applying arcs and rounded corners to shape the counseling spaces and strengthen the school’s visual identity while fostering a sense of safety and calm. Soft, low-saturation colors paired with strategic accents introduce spatial depth, bringing vitality into a serene atmosphere. In the individual counseling room, the blue-and-white entry vestibule is defined by a quarter-circle cabinet that gently frames the conversation area; moving inward reveals a warm, peach-toned circular nook, followed by a calming zone anchored in cooler blues. The group counseling room features a circular central floor surrounded by continuous wall-side benches, allowing teachers to flexibly adjust seating arrangements for various types of group guidance, discussions, and activities.

User-Centered Thinking in Counseling Environment Design

A key highlight of the renovation lies in its user-centered design details. Traditional sandplay often relied on old classroom desks, which were too tall for younger or smaller students. The redesigned sandplay area now aligns with students’ average height and offers a more intuitive setup. Recognizing that students entering the calming zone often experience heightened emotional states, safety measures such as padded corners, foam protection, and soft mats were introduced to help users decompress and release emotions safely. The designer also added thoughtful touches to the entrances of the two rooms: a large circle symbolizes the group counseling room, while a small circle represents the individual counseling room—signifying mutual support between teachers and students while giving the rooms affectionate nicknames embraced by the school community.