Solomon Wong Tech Cube

At the Taipei American School in Taiwan, K-12 students are working on the next generation of robotics, with access to some of the most advanced technology and equipment in the world. The Solomon Wong Tech Cube, a new building on the school’s 15-acre campus, provides an adaptable space where they can design, build, operate and showcase their creations.

 “From the school’s point of view, the Tech Cube provides the possibility for all students to seek and develop their potential imagination and creativity,” says Alex Huang, project manager at WSP, who led the building’s construction.

The  4,380m² facility has six dedicated floors for lower, middle, and upper-school students. More advanced tools are housed on the top floors, including the High Performance Computer Lab and the school’s virtual reality classrooms. On the fifth floor, a fabrication shop contains 3D printers, welding tools and other machines that enable the construction of complex robotics. The sixth floor of the building is spacious and open, designed to be the largest robotic competition space in Asia. “The design of open spaces on the top floors works not only as a classroom but more like a lab or a factory to let the students practise their ideas in a realistic environment,” says Huang.

As the Taipei American School is located in a quiet residential area, the project team were required to keep noise, vibration and overall impact to the surrounding neighbourhood to a minimum during construction, in order to maintain its positive relationship with the community. Safety was also a crucial consideration throughout the project. “The Tech Cube is located on campus just between the track and baseball fields, and construction vehicles needed to cut across the main route of students,” explains Huang. “To resolve this, we suggested building a temporary steel bridge structure to provide a safe pathway for students.”

The Tech Cube is also designed to be flexible for future needs. A permanent crane hangs from the fifth-floor ceiling and can extend outside of the building, which will allow the school to bring in new machinery as technology advances. The building facade is transparent, adds Huang, so students working inside can easily see the surrounding environment, and plenty of light illuminates their tinkering. “This was designed to be a living building,” he says.