Taipei Municipal Shi-Dong Elementary School｜Inspiration Rendering Gallery

“ Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet. ”

—— Paul Klee

Using Light to Reimagine Color: A New Approach to Chromatic Expression

In the hardware planning of this project, the design team selected white, gray, and black as the primary palette, using colored light to create soft washes of hue that appear as “virtual color” throughout the renovated space. This interplay between the real and the ephemeral avoids heavy physical coloration and significantly reduces visual pressure within the environment. The strategy introduces a new paradigm for color use, breaking away from traditional approaches.

Expanding Spatial Imagination from One Room to Two

The renovation site was originally an unusually long rectangular room that the school had divided into two enclosed classrooms by installing tall wooden cabinets. This separation not only fragmented the space but also forced many shared facilities to be duplicated, further reducing already limited teaching and storage areas. The design team reconnected the two rooms by introducing transparent sliding doors, restoring the sense of a unified large space while still accommodating the need for independent teaching in each room. The transparent doors expand usable space and visibility, enabling one room’s footprint to serve the functional possibilities of two, ultimately creating twice the spatial imagination for teaching and learning.