Opinmäki School, more officially Opinmäki Learning Center, is located in Suurpelto, Espoo. The building houses an international English-language unified school, part of the Päiväkehrä school, Opinmäki kindergarten and a small library. School sites must be healthy and safe, and these properties must be maintained throughout the long life cycle of the building. In addition, the buildings must serve their purpose impeccably. The main goal of Opinmäki’s design was a new way of working in common spaces. At the time, the project received recognition for listening to nearby residents in its design.
Opinmäki as was an exceptionally challenging construction project starting from the groundwork. It was built on an ancient seabed. The building itself is a complex ensemble consisting of nine parts connected by a single lobby. The spans of the structures are quite long and the roofs of every nine sections have different slopes. The space can be divided by partition walls or connected with sliding doors. Some learning spaces are directly connected to the corridor space, and to other learning spaces.
Challenging architecture led to visible structures and building services in many places. The structures have been implemented in the form of wooden elements, castings, concrete elements and steel trusses. Slightly different from usual, polyurethane for the thermal insulation of Opinmäki’s outer walls is pre-installed on the outer shell elements.
KOy Opinmäki Kampus real estate company, which is wholly owned by the City of Espoo, was established to implement Opinmäki. The Espoon Tilakeskus was responsible for building the project. Our partner was Esa Ruskeepää Architects, which in 2011 won an open architectural competition for the design of the site together with architect Thomas Miyauch. The main designer of the project was Vesa Erikkilä and the project architect was Sasu Marila.
In Opinmäki, our task was compartmentation of lobby areas connecting the buildings, as well as the exit safety of the sports hall. We optimized the compartmentation lobby spaces so that the compartmentation was carried out at the lowest possible cost. In addition, we simulated the effects and spread of a facade fire. Polyurethane-insulated facades, wooden roof elements for water roofs and solid wood claddings were approved by the authorities as the first P1 fire class building in Espoo. The building was completed in 2015.
Our services in the project
- fire safety engineering
- fire simulation
- plans for smoke clearance
- statements on, among other things, the fire resistance of wooden structures
- consulting during implementation
- authority negotiations
- consulting for other designers
