Schools | The designers of the open-plan school in Helsinki were instructed as follows: “The environment consists of questions”

HS unearthed the original plans of Jakomäki’s “open-plan school” from 2017. They show that the Helsinki teaching staff has been involved in blessing the school, which does not have its own classrooms, nor many walls.

The lack of walls is seen in the plan as an opportunity to “be seen”.

HS told last week that new walls are being built in the open spaces of Helsinki’s Jakomäki Kankarepuisto school for nearly a million euros, because the lack of walls causes so many problems.

Kankarepuisto elementary school operates in a building named the heart of Jakomäki, where in addition to the school for almost 600 students, there is a youth center, a playground and a daycare center.

“Multipurpose and flexible space solutions enable different ways of working”, says the Kankarepuisto school’s needs report from February 2017.

Spaces are important in the interaction between children and adults, the report also states. According to the needs assessment, there will be no private home classes in the new school building, and special education will be organized in connection with the general education facilities.

Since then, it has become clear that going to school in rooms without walls or in transparent rooms is difficult because of the noise and distractions.

In the needs assessment, the matter was examined as follows: “Visual connections between spaces give the opportunity to see and be seen”.

Jakomäki to realize the heart, an architectural competition was organized, the winner of which was chosen in March 2017. The competition instructions were open to interpretation.

It was instructed as follows: “The student is offered an environment that consists of questions, methods, guidance and support. The road is not already signposted, but there are different alternative routes to the same goal.”

The winner was a candidate called “Demos”. The proposal was praised for the fact that the “spatial nature of the plan was experiential”.

“The relationship between pedagogy and flexible functionality with space efficiency and economy had been studied in the most interesting way in the proposal “Demos'”the review protocol states.

Who did you want open spaces?

A large number of experts from the city’s agencies at the time were preparing a needs assessment for the open office school. Most of them came from the then Education Agency and early childhood education. The principal of the school was also present.

Deputy mayor for education and training Johanna Laisaari (sd) was making the decision himself as a deputy member of the board.

Politicians previously pushed responsibility for “open office schools” within the city to the urban environment industry, which is responsible for buildings, among other things.

However, the desire for “open and flexible study environments” came from the education agency representing schools.

Tuesday Laisaari said in an interview with HS that it is wrong that the voices of teachers and students have not been heard more in the design of the facilities, because the facilities should support learning and teaching.

In 2017, a statement regarding occupational safety and health was given regarding the plans for Jakomäki’s heart, which was discussed in the board of education and training.

It paid attention to surface materials, such as the cleaning of felt curtains and textile carpets, and required a sufficient number of ventilation emergency stop buttons.

There is no mention of open learning environments or glass walls. The statement was prepared by several occupational health and safety commissioners and three experts from the Education Agency.

When the board of education at the time made the final decision about building the heart of Jakomäki, Laisaari was again involved in the meeting. No one raised any objections.

Laisaari according to the needs plan, the spirit of the times was behind it, which included the experiment of open spaces.

“We had a trend of making multi-purpose spaces. Of course, this is the place to look in the mirror, because the decision-makers also act partly ideologically.”

Laisaari states that during the construction phase, the teachers have raised concerns about, for example, the Kankarepuisto lobby, but the teachers’ views were still not sufficiently heard.

Since then, the city has drawn up new spatial planning goals.

“The most important thing is to review user experiences and correct errors. Now we have come to a legal point regarding these open spaces, they are not functioning as learning environments”, says Laisaari.

When the last political decision regarding the heart of Jakomäki was made in August 2018, many speeches praising the project were given at the city council meeting.

Authorized only Mika Ebeling (kd) asked to make sure that the premises are certainly sufficient for the needs of the school and the kindergarten, and Frank Muttilainen (left) was worried about the dimensions of the youth facilities.

The building was commissioned in autumn 2020.