The district of Saunalahti, in the Finnish city of Espoo –the second largest city of the country-, is a neighbourhood recently created to host the growing population of the south of Finland. However, it is not one of those dormitory towns, which are so frequent in many places all over the world. The urban project was designed by prestigious architects and has been developed to make citizens’ lives simpler. It is a place where life is focused on the school, instead of focusing in supermarkets.

Inaugurated in September 2012, Saunalahti School is considered the golden boy of the Finnish educational system, which is well-known for appearing over and over again in the top numbers of the PISA report rankings.

The awarded architecture study, VERSTAS, designed the centre thinking about “the school of the future”, the perfect building to promote a pedagogic system based on three pillars:

Interaction and collaboration

The school has three classrooms, but its’ organization is nothing alike the ones we are familiar with. There are no individual desks and it has huge windows that face the surroundings of the school as well as other classrooms. Everything is designed to promote teamwork, and there are spaces that resemble those of a university, such as hallways filled with chairs and tables, where students can study or just sit down and chat.

“The building is at full capacity during most of the day. There is plenty of synergy that everyone can seize”.

The school does not only foster collaboration among students, but also among students, teachers and the rest of the community. Besides providing nine courses –Finland does not have schools differentiated by primary and secondary level-, the school has a day care centre for the elderly, a childcare service, a youth house, a public library –which at the same time is the school library- and a gym that is opened for citizens.

During the day, kids attend classes; during the afternoon, their parents go to the gym or to the library; and during weekends, associations organize activities for the entire neighbourhood.

The core idea is simple: if community life revolves around school, everyone will make sure it works properly.

Learning outside the classroom

The school is designed to promote a pedagogic system that focuses on informal learning, in which there is no clear difference between classes and breaks. “Several students do not feel comfortable with traditional classrooms”, explains in “This is Finland” Ilkka Salminen, one of the architects who designed the centre. “Every interior and exterior space is a potential place for learning”.

The school is filled with spaces where people can sit, work, study and, why not, have fun. The building was planned to prevent students having the feeling of being locked, which is very frequent in traditional schools. Therefore, it has huge windows, which is vital in a country where we lack many hours of sunlight.

The schoolyards for the younger kids are pointing to the East, in order to receive more sunlight, while the older students, who spend more hours at school, get the final rays of sunlight from the copper ceiling, slightly turned to catch even the last photon.

“The open-mindedness and the sense of community can also be observed in the architecture”, explained Salminen. “The core of the building is a multiple-uses dining room where everybody gather together. It faces towards the school yard as if it was an amphitheatre.”

Learning by doing

The Finnish educational system gives special importance to arts, sports and manual labour, areas that, according to several studies, improve academic performance in the other areas. At Saunalahti School, the gym and workshops a vital spaces, and have privileged locations in the building. The activities carried out there can be observed from the school yard and the main hallway, which makes physical activity a very present part of the school’s everyday routine.