Taitung County YungAn Elementary School｜Into the Living Forest

Walking into YongAn Elementary School’s art classroom feels like stepping back ten or more years. The tables and chairs are outdated, and the storage cabinets, drying racks, and wash basins for cleaning tools are all pieced together from old equipment that has long surpassed their useful life.

With the design team’s intervention, the classroom was reimagined beginning with flexible tables that can be separated for individual work or combined for collaborative large-scale creations. Hidden storage is integrated beneath the teacher’s podium for infrequently used teaching tools. Along one side of the classroom, low cabinets organize art supplies by category, each clearly marked with visually refined icons and labels that guide students in locating and returning materials. A full blackboard wall gives students a large surface for freehand drawing beyond the confines of paper.

The classroom is named “Into the Living Forest,” symbolizing that students come here not only to attend art class but also to draw inspiration from YongAn’s precious natural environment, integrating the surrounding landscape and ecology into their creative learning.