Suo­lahti com­pre­hen­sive School

Improv­ing the cohe­sion of a com­pre­hen­sive school

The old side of the school rep­re­sents a straight­for­ward, marked­ly 70s style build­ing. A new part was designed to strike the same chord while reflect­ing the soft­er val­ues of the present. A red-brick facade and strip win­dows tie the exten­sion to the old side of the archi­tec­ture, and the exten­sion does not rise high­er than the orig­i­nal school.

As much yard space as pos­si­ble was pre­served by cre­at­ing log­i­cal func­tion­al con­nec­tions to the exist­ing build­ing and cor­don­ing off the school­yard from traf­fic.

The new com­mon din­ing room forms a high, organ­ic space between the old and the new part. The tra­di­tion­al cor­ri­dor mod­el has been avoid­ed, and the teach­ing facil­i­ties have been arranged in a mod­ern way as open learn­ing envi­ron­ments. How­ev­er, if nec­es­sary, it is pos­si­ble to close the facil­i­ties so that tra­di­tion­al class­room-based teach­ing can be car­ried out.