Maatulli primary school

Helsinki’s new primary school and daycare centre is grounded in natural themes. This green school concept is based on research indicating that educational institutions built from wood and closely connected to nature can have a positive impact on children’s mental and physical health.

Read the article in Finnish here.

Planted in a lush park in Helsinki’s Tapulikaupunki district, Maatulli School and Kindergarten is home to 700 pupils and 238 kindergartners. The school mimics a village, with five wooden buildings arranged around a circular green courtyard known as “The Forest Glade”. This courtyard places a compelling green outdoor space at the heart of the school, enhancing the learning environment and adding value beyond traditional school life. The school and its outdoor learning environments seamlessly flow into the surrounding park landscape, leaving existing terrain and trees intact.

Designed from a learner’s perspective, the school provides a green and flexible study environment that supports well-being, concentration, and creativity. The distinct building blocks with shared, centrally located common areas offer a framework on a human scale where learners of all ages can easily find their way, meeting others and learning from one another. Thanks to the efficient layout, all functions are within a short distance of the building’s central space and entrances.

Wood and other natural materials are used throughout the building, fashioning a direct connection with nature and creating a calm and inviting environment where every learner can feel at ease. The central green courtyard and bright lobby, with its touchable wooden interior, serve as focal points for social gatherings and for finding one’s way inside the building. All five blocks have their own unique character and a variety of functions, including learning spaces, a canteen, a gymnasium, science and art facilities, and a kindergarten. The learning spaces are adaptable, with movable partitions allowing them to be reconfigured for different learning activities or learner needs. The school’s green outdoor learning spaces are central to its pedagogy, helping children understand the ins and outs of nature and hopefully inspiring them to contribute to a more sustainable future.

Built from solid wood modules, Maatulli School and Kindergarten is one of Helsinki’s first wooden school facilities. Its wood-clad façade is decorated with vertical mullions, drawing inspiration from the surrounding trees to create a dynamic interplay between the exterior and interior. To enhance each block’s uniqueness, the façade is divided into five distinct themes. Using locally sourced spruce as the primary material was a conscious choice stemming from the wish to highlight wood’s natural characteristics, such as its knots and grain, and to embrace an organic, honest appearance that ages naturally and in harmony with the environment. In addition to the benefits for the school’s users, such as improved acoustic performance, better air quality, and other health advantages, the robust materials contribute to the long life, sustainability, and low maintenance of the actual building. With its minimal CO2 footprint, the new wooden school and kindergarten aligns with the City of Helsinki’s vision to build sustainable buildings and enhance suburban neighbourhoods.

Technical solutions

The building has two storeys above ground and a ventilated crawl space. The ventilation equipment is on the first floor. Built on a pile foundation, the hollow slab subfloor is machine-ventilated and has heat insulation installed underneath it. The load-bearing frame chiefly consists of glulam pillars, glulam beams, and veneer beams. Steel beams are only used in specific sections. The load-bearing outer walls and intermediate floors are made from CLT elements, with the latter also covered with a floating surface slab cast in situ. The topmost ceiling is constructed from CLT slabs topped with heat insulation, with a ventilated attic space and dormers on top. Structural stiffening is handled by CLT walls and reinforced concrete stairwells and elevator shafts. The subfloor, intermediate floor, and topmost ceiling serve as rigid levels that distribute horizontal loads. The gymnasium has a glulam pillar-beam frame with 18-metre beams.

The building has an S1 class civil defence shelter and is equipped with comprehensive automatic extinguishing equipment, which means the load-bearing structures only need to meet the requirements for P1 class buildings under 28 metres. Gathering spaces are in fire class R60, building technology rooms R60, exit stairs and platforms R30. Load-bearing structures are wood and meet the requirements of fire class D-s2, d2. The thermal insulation material is in class A2-s1, d0. Thanks to the automatic fire extinguishing equipment, only one fire compartment was required. A few separate compartments were created nonetheless based on usage. Indoors, the wooden surfaces of core spaces are protected according to class D-s2, d2. Stairwells in everyday use form their own fire compartments, and each wing has an additional exit staircase protected from cold weather.

A learning environment’s acoustics are key to effective learning. Wood’s excellent sound dampening properties reduce reverberation and noise, providing a quieter environment that improves the learning experience. Most rooms have acoustic panelling made from wooden slats or wood fibreboard. The acoustics design team used their own proprietary calculation tools, and their predictions proved incredibly accurate when compared to the actual sound insulation levels measured on site. Due to the building’s large size, the acoustics design strived towards cost-effectiveness, including structural solutions such as claddings that prevent lateral sound transmission in the CLT frame.

The construction project

Planning began with a public two-phase competition. The proposal by Fors Arkitekter and Blomqvist arkitektur was announced as the winner on March 31st, 2021. Fors Arkitekter spearheaded the project’s continued planning phase and asked Arkkitehtuuri- ja muotoilutoimisto Talli to serve as their Finnish partner and to lead further planning and building design. A project management contract was concluded with the client in May 2021.

The site’s building permit was issued on May 21st, 2022, and construction began soon thereafter in August. As the building’s layout resembled a flower, splitting construction into petal-by-petal phases was a natural choice. Work started around the circular courtyard and progressed to the first petal’s CLT elements and pillar-beam frame in November. Subcontracts for the initial construction phases had already been awarded in the planning stages, which meant work could begin as soon as officials gave the green light. All construction took place under a weather shelter, which meant that the scheduling and overlapping of each petal phase was precise to ensure that the gargantuan weather shelters had room to fit around the building mass.

The project management as a contract format proved an excellent choice, and design collaboration was effortless: everyone shared a strong commitment to the shared quality goals, and the professionally ambitious builders provided invaluable support in the planning and design stages. Due to the Covid pandemic, the teams in Denmark and Finland were forced to collaborate remotely for most of the planning and preparation. However, their intensive, workshop-style approach and the quick progress necessitated by the design and construction schedules ultimately united them despite the distance. Construction took 24 months and was completed in August 2024.

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