Client projects: Rosenberg School

Knowledge, development and learning together

When Tidaholm Municipality needed to build a new school, they included the pedagogical idea from the planning stage. By thoroughly mapping needs and way of working, as well as involving staff and students, they managed to create a learning environment that supports the school's vision of being welcoming, flexible and sustainable. "A new school requires time, effort, thought and commitment to make it a good one," say principals Ulrika Eskilsson and Andreas Lindahl.

In Tidaholm, discussions regarding the growing number of students entering the municipality's schools resulted in a decision to build a preschool class up to class 6 school in the new district of Rosenberg. This gave the opportunity to think through the operation from scratch, base their work on the pedagogical idea that school is where you develop knowledge for life, and to focus on the best interests of the students.

Ulrika Eskilsson, principal of preschool class to class 3, was adamant that this be included in the process from the earliest stage possible.

"When investing in a new school, you have to start by asking yourself what your intention is with the learning environment and why you need to make a change. The earlier you take a holistic approach to everything from architecture to interior design, the better. There are no shortcuts to creating environments that provide security, encourage learning and are conducive to studying, so the process has to take time," she says.

Her colleague Andreas Lindahl, principal of classes 4 to 6 and of newly arrived immigrants, agrees and stresses the importance of starting early with planning the school's image and function. Creating sustainable, inclusive learning environments takes a lot of time, thought and mapping, not to mention involving both internal and external expertise. He also mentions that, though they could have started planning Rosenberg School sooner, they nonetheless had some opportunities to influence the building itself to coincide with their pedagogical idea.

Learning environments built based on identified needs and school concept

The starting assumption of the Rosenberg School project was the conviction that the physical environment and its design affect how both students and staff feel and perform. The municipality and its staff therefore placed great emphasis on ensuring that solid preparatory work was carried out to map actual needs and to discover which interior design solutions would support them best. All of this to ensure they made the right purchases from the start. Kinnarps was given an early opportunity to present its Next Education® learning space analysis and then worked closely with Rosenberg School's management, project group, staff and students throughout the entire process. Through lectures, studies of different types of learning environments, practical workshops and web surveys, all stakeholders were involved. Kinnarps developed a report compiling the results in their entirety, as well as by department. This report also included recommendations for the physical environment and became an important basis when the municipality formulated the procurement.

The procurement finally settled on the evaluation parameters flexibility, a welcoming environment, good acoustics and sustainability. They wanted the best and most creative solution linked to these values, and therefore chose a functional procurement instead of a traditional price procurement. Andreas Lindahl says that the idea behind this was to prioritise the school's vision and concept and focus on the total solution instead of each individual product.

Flexible interior design solutions were one of the fundamental requirements and now permeate the entire school, both in how different pieces of furniture can be combined with other pieces and how they can be arranged to suit a specific individual or learning situation. The choice of varying pastel colours in muted tones also makes it easy to combine furniture without it giving a messy impression.

Soft, padded furniture throughout and a number of sound-absorbing screens provide good acoustics and a cosy feeling. As a nice detail and positive feature that creates a sense of well-being and security, all toilets are equipped with seasonal sounds such as birds chirping.

Malin Skatt, teacher of class 4 to 6, is one of the teachers who was involved in the new school project. She feels that the new learning environments and way of working are more adapted to modern teaching methods. For example, there are group rooms adjoining all classrooms, enabling children to work independently without disturbing each other, while still being close by. Places where students can choose to sit or stand also creates natural dynamics and movement, helping students stay focused. She is also glad that the staff have been given work rooms with furnishings that support different activities, ergonomic desks, project tables and smaller rooms with soft seating for meetings.

"Being able to sit in a designated room for staff and work, instead of in the classroom, is a boost for all of us. It makes it so much easier to create a collegial team spirit and to ask a quick question when you have something on your mind," says Malin Skatt.

Kajsa Ekelund, teacher of children in need of special support, also appreciates the school's varied interior design and sees a major advantage in being able to adapt the furnishings to suit specific needs and students.

"I had difficulty letting go of traditional furnishings, but Kinnarps provided both inspiration and security. I felt they knew what they were talking about and that we could trust them. It wasn't just about furniture, it was about the big picture, things like values, vision and pedagogical idea," she says.

Anders Larsson, learning space strategist at Kinnarps and involved in the project, gives great credit to the principals whose clear vision and understanding of what was important to think about early on in the process enabled them to create the school they dreamed of. It was not just about furnishings, but even more about changing ways of working. One of the success factors was the time and opportunity given to discussing, reflecting, working practically and raising important views and ideas about learning environments. This has made it possible to create sustainable interior design solutions for different learning situations that support both students and teachers and make efficient use of the school's space.

Implementation - a success factor

Throughout the change journey, the project team understood the importance of planning how to introduce the new learning environments to staff and students once it was time to move in. Inspired by other Kinnarps projects, Rosenberg School created a playbook containing common guidelines and approaches for staff detailing the rules that apply to different situations and specific areas of the school - all with the aim of establishing the way of working and culture they wanted to permeate the school from day one. The book was handed out to all staff prior to opening the new school.