If you walk around Taipei American School (TAS), it may feel like there isn’t much infrastructure work being done. It’s not hard to see why, though. With limited land in Taipei, there seems to be no more space to build new projects. However, a quick scan of the TAS website would tell you otherwise. For the school’s 75th anniversary, TAS has partnered with famed designer Rosan Bosch on a project called “Transforming Spaces.” Per the website, the project aims to “re-imagine key student and community spaces across our campus… to better support the way our students and community live and learn.” 

“Transforming Spaces” is expected to include four parts: the Lower School cafeteria, the middle school playground, the welcome lobby and the Office of Learning. Overall, this new transformation allows for more comfortable spaces for students to work with their peers. It would also give students the ability to participate in more modern, more inclusive learning that places significance on well-being.

Firstly, the Lower School cafeteria will be constructed on the first floor of the Solomon Wong Tech Cube. The Lower School Cafeteria provides younger students the opportunity to eat lunch in an area better tailored to their needs, as the current cafeteria is shared between all grade levels. When asked, Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Kraut  explains that, “there is a lot of empty space on the first floor [of the Tech Cube] right now.” By reconstructing the first and second floors of the Tech Cube into a Lower School cafeteria, lower schoolers will get “their own eating area with their own dedicated food program,” and it also opens up the current cafeteria space for development.

Secondly, the middle school playground is to be situated in the area beside the Tech Cube, taking advantage of the existing sloped grass field. The rationale behind a playground dedicated to middle school students is to give them the chance to burn off their energy during the school day. Mr. Kraut notes that the play area will differ drastically from the Lower School Tiger Garden due to “space and functional differences.”

As for the welcome lobby, the aim is to make the space more open, making it feel less confined. Mr. Kraut emphasizes that this change will only be “aesthetic and not structural,” meaning that no changes to the lobby’s structural makeup will be made. Instead, new decor will be chosen to make the space more welcoming and spacious.

Lastly, the Office of Learning (also known as the Admin Office) will be transformed to help foster a more modern space for newer learning methods. Mr. Kraut shares that they are planning to refurbish the entire office, with the traditional offices being removed in favor of a more “open and dynamic layout” that “encourages discussion and teamwork.”

While the timeline and finish date for the projects are still unknown, they are set to have their first stages initiated during the summer of 2025, with future construction being completed on a rolling basis. As to which projects will be finished earlier, Mr. Kraut says that the lobby and the Lower School cafeteria are high up on the list, with the predicted completion date of the cafeteria being by the end of the 2026-2027 academic school year. The renovations to the lobby will be easier to accomplish, as they only require changing the interior design.

Overall, TAS’s “Transforming Spaces” project represents a bold step forward in revolutionizing the school. With finalized plans going into motion soon, the school aims to create more well-suited and open environments for learning and collaboration. Still, as with any major renovation, we must remember that the timeline and designs remain flexible, meaning there could be new additional projects later.