When we arrive at the Hiukkavaara community centre in Oulu, the whole area is covered with a fresh layer of snow. Hoivatilat, Aedifica’s local team in Finland, recently completed the extension of the school building here. At the beginning of January 2025, ten groups of first to fourth graders were able to start their spring semester in brand-new classrooms. We receive an enthusiastic welcome from Anne Moilanen, the school’s principal: ‘We are very pleased with the functionality and design of the new school building. It is truly fit for purpose!’
The tenant’s clear vision of the property’s functionality streamlined the design process. Our collaborative approach with public authorities and all other partners involved ensured a result we can all be proud of.
Elina Suikki
Project Manager at Hoivatilat
The Hiukkavaara school is part of a community centre that also houses a childcare centre, a youth centre and a library. The whole complex is operated by the City of Oulu. Anne has a longtime connection with the school. From the very beginning, she was involved in the design of the initial school building, which was completed in 2017. As the number of pupils grew, it soon became clear that the school was not big enough. ‘We have grown tremendously in less than eight years. Thanks to the new Tahtimarssi extension, we have room for 350 more pupils, which means we can now accommodate almost a thousand children,’ Anne explains.
A professional approach
The school’s extension was awarded through a public tender, which Hoivatilat won with a carefully considered proposal. ‘We were pleasantly surprised by how well all our wishes were listened to,’ Anne says, looking back on the collaboration with satisfaction.
‘Hoivatilat’s approach is very professional: there was a good flow of information and our opinion was always taken into account. The project was managed in an exemplary fashion and also fully met our objectives in terms of sustainability, environmental impact and energy efficiency,’ Anne adds. ‘The whole time, we felt that we were in expert hands and could almost blindly trust the smooth progress of the construction process.’
Flexible spaces for an innovative learning model
The school principal takes us on a tour and shows us how the building has been specifically designed to meet the needs of the school’s learning model. ‘The spaces in the new building are easily adaptable and suitable for teaching large groups as well as working in smaller teams.’
This spatial flexibility was a requirement. After all, Hiukkavaara does not work with traditional classrooms, but with open learning spaces or ‘nests’. These are flexible teaching and working spaces that can be easily transformed with mobile furniture.
Elina Suikki, Project Manager at Hoivatilat, explains how the wishes of the school were taken into account in the design of the nests: ‘After receiving feedback, we created a communal learning hall. This hall is the centre of all the nest areas and can also be used as a flexible learning space.’
Meeting everyone’s needs
‘The extension is the right size, functional and meets our needs. We are also very happy with the large windows and sliding glass doors between the classrooms. The new building is so pleasant that some pupils have even said they would like to spend the night at school,’ Anne continues.
She also praises the large entrances with storage space for shoes, the sizable gym and the fact that there are no unnecessarily long corridors in the building. Visually, the school is simply beautiful and the colour scheme is in harmony with nature. ‘The students, their supervisors and our staff are all over the moon about it.’
