Right from the start the school adopted European and American ideas, and while other universities stayed stuck at the level of civil engineering formulas and flat drawings, Tunghai was using models, cross-sections, and actual structural experiments to develop in students a mastery of space.
打從創校之初便引進歐美觀念，在其他學校仍停留在土木技術、紙上作業的層次時，東海便已大量透過模型、立體剖面、構造實作，來訓練學生對於空間的掌握力。