The task was to adapt an existing building from the Otaniemi campus for its new function as high-school. The challenge was to figure out what is the role of the building in a project-based, digitalised, dissipated learning process. Thus, the building, the “school” becomes the heart, the hub, the meeting place for students and teachers, a place sheltering a diversity of learning behaviors. A new type of school that focuses on the experience of the learner, a school which exploits all available resources as it expands across the limits of the building. The building transforms to become a hub, a social space where learning happens in interaction with others and with the environment. The variety of spaces emerges from the diverse manners in which learning happens. Each place has a strong identity, in contrast with the anonymity of the prototypical classroom. The project takes advantage of the existing configuration of the building to open it to the rest of the campus and connect it with the surrounding paths through several alternative entrances. The greenhouse on the roof works as a prolongation of the campus forest, a link with the natural context, identifier, lantern, and soft space for playful learning.
