Harjula School - School spaces that can be adapted to different needs

The design of school premises often involves a wide range of staff, from teachers to health and safety representatives. This was also the case in the design of the Harjula school in Lake Lakes Region.

It is the building architect of Innovarch Oy Anne-Maria Naapurin just a good thing. The neighbour has been the project manager for the architectural design of the Harjula school from the beginning to the end of the project. The new Harjula campus, consisting of a new building and a renovation of the old school building, was completed last summer.

The architect's task was to design how to make the school and its facilities as versatile and adaptable as possible to the users' needs.

“The school was designed with the need for versatility, sharing and modification in mind, so together with the users we have explored options and different solutions.”, Neighbour says.

Neighbour as a designer at Innovarch, has been involved in a number of modern school buildings where the focus has been on achieving an open and multifunctional space. In the Harjula school, like many others, they wanted to leave the classic classroom layout behind, but still achieve good working peace and a layout that could be varied according to the changing teaching situations.

The aim was to build an entity where it would be possible to bring a large group of students together in the same space and then split into smaller groups of students. The degree of sound insulation between the rooms was determined in collaboration with the acoustic designer.

At Harjula school, pupils are divided into three cells, which are like little schools in their own right. The school also has pre-school groups and a kindergarten for four children. The facilities are also used for evening activities and leisure activities for the local community. It was important to take into account the daily variation in the use of the facilities.

FP-Products has been a supplier of space dividers to Neighbour's design projects on several occasions. Therefore, the design was supported from the beginning by the experience gained from previous projects with the options offered by the familiar Space Makers.

“Of course, the contractor ultimately decides and puts the suppliers out to tender, but in this case, the FP products were delivered to site as planned,” says Naapuri.

As a result of the collaboration between architecture and acoustic design, the Harjula school was selected FP-Phonic-taiteovia, with felt surface paleovia and transfer walls for different space-sharing needs. In addition, the food distribution area in the kitchen was equipped with FP-Products rollers.

“FP-Products was needed to help with the design, especially with the transition walls of the stage, which opens in three directions. We received suggestions and plans for positioning and rail placement, for example.”, Neighbour says.

The site was special because, in addition to the new building, the adjacent listed school building, built in 1930, was renovated. The old building also used French doors to diversify the use of the space.