Representing Cultural Symbols of the Aborigines: A Case Study of Reconstructed Elementary Schools in Taiwan

Abstract

As with other types of architecture in the process of modernization, Taiwanese school buildings entail a basic problem that must be resolved – ″what type of architectural form″ is capable of representing modernized school architecture. This paper uses the creation and identification of ″cultural symbols″ as themes, first organizing the close relationship between the development of Taiwanese architectural forms in different periods and symbolism; then, for the post-921 earthquake period, a number of aboriginal elementary schools located in mountainous villages in Taiwan are used as case studies to demonstrate that Taiwanese aboriginal school buildings have already developed from the shallow and crude operations of image symbolism to ″space type″ analogized architectural models. Then, case analysis is used to show that forms derived from cultural prototypes have different degrees of perception due to different autonomous identification and conversion methods applied by architects to cultural symbols.