Ruukinkan­gas School

Vari­a­tion in the num­ber of pupils: a chal­lenge in the imple­men­ta­tion phase

In the project plan­ning phase, a phased mod­el was cre­at­ed to extend the life cycle of the upper sec­ondary school build­ing by over pres­sur­iz­ing it so that the largest age groups would have time to move on to fur­ther stud­ies. In this way, it was pos­si­ble to min­i­mize the size of the new premis­es to be built and there­by reduce the usage of new mate­ri­als.

In our pro­pos­al, "Kekäleet" (“Embers”), for the build-design ten­der­ing phase, the spaces were divid­ed into nat­ur­al func­tion­al units and effi­cient­ly placed in three cubic mass­es. With its audi­to­ri­um stairs between the two-sto­ry "kekäle" struc­tures, the high lob­by space serves as a mul­ti-pur­pose com­bi­na­tion of a stage, a restau­rant hall and a ped­a­gog­i­cal pub­lic space.

In addi­tion to the exte­ri­ors and entrances, ori­ent­ing the admin­is­tra­tive premis­es towards lake Kianta­järvi and the pre­serv­ing the rugged pine trees at the con­struc­tion site helped in guid­ing the shape of the build­ing to its final form. The vary­ing open­ings have been used to achieve a child's scale and play­ful­ness in oth­er­wise qui­et ele­ments.

Exten­sive yard and neigh­bor­hood sports areas with attrac­tive loca­tions and suit­able for a forest­ed envi­ron­ment have also been planned in con­nec­tion with the school. After the con­struc­tion of the new school and upper sec­ondary school, the num­ber of pupils has not decreased to the antic­i­pat­ed extent, but the demo­graph­ic devel­op­ment of young peo­ple has sur­passed expec­ta­tions.