The schools of the future are creative, calm environments built to help students thrive as they learn. They’re also made of wood.

 

Life in a sustainable classroom

There is now extensive evidence showing that students learn better, feel calmer and concentrate better in wooden schools. An Austrian study showed that students in wooden classrooms had lower blood pressure and lower perceptions of stress. Other studies have shown improved creativity.
But more than that, wood has a low environmental impact, up to 70% lower than using traditional materials like concrete and steel. And wood from sustainable forests is renewable: it keeps growing back.

 

Innovative design for collaboration and creativity

How a school is designed affects how the people within it learn. The right architectural design can open up for more collaboration and creativity when required but also provide an environment that makes it easier and more enjoyable for students to learn and concentrate.
Wood is a flexible material and offers a myriad of opportunities for the architect, providing flexibility and an appealing look and feel for the most innovative school architecture.

 

How to build a wooden school

At Stora Enso, we have developed guidelines to help you explore sustainable school design and pave the way for the next generation of educational buildings. With massive wood elements like CLT (Cross Laminated Timber)  and LVL (Laminated Veneer Lumber) you can build for every educational environment.
Our Schools Concept by Stora Enso shows you how to make use of CLT and LVL in a way to suit the design needs of any modern school. It also shows how you can add a personal touch, creative innovative and cost-efficient school architecture.
The concept is modular with a 600 m² school unit as the starting point. There are also modules for kindergarten schools, an open plan module and a corridor module. The design opportunities are flexible and the modules can be adapted and combined depending on the needs of the school in question.

 

INNORENEW Centre of Excellence in Slovenia	CIS - Centre for Inclusion and Special Education in Austria	Romsdal High School Molde in Norway

 

Visit our Reference Library to see what other educational buildings we have been involved with.

Curious and want to find out more? Download the School Concept by Stora Enso.