Forest makes
School

How to build
educational facilities
with wood

Investing in education and the next generation means building on our future. An appropriate, contemporary, awareness-raising and motivating learning culture is also reflected in the quality of our educational buildings, which we see as an expression of our appreciation of the younger generations. Wood as a building material plays a key role in this and has been experiencing a real boom in the construction of daycare centres, kindergartens and schools for some time now. Why is that? 3 reasons that make a lasting impression:

1. pure nature

Not only adults, but also small children and young people are exposed to an enormous flood of visual and acoustic stimuli these days. Constant stress and concentration problems are inevitable. While we have to accept certain developments as a given, we can actively counteract them in other areas. For example, in the field of architecture. Spending time in wooden buildings has a demonstrably relaxing and decelerating effect, as a scientific study on pupils taught in a “wooden class” in Styria (SOS – School without Stress) shows.

Healthy learning with wood

No wonder: taking a deep breath is still really fun here. The scent of larch, fir, spruce, etc. lingers in the nose long after installation – with untreated surfaces, the reference to the forest is within reach. Wood has an absolutely calming effect, it smells good, radiates peace and cosiness and ensures a pleasant room climate overall.

2. the wooden kindergarten

If we not only want to preach the concept of sustainability, but also consciously live it, there is no way around thinking and acting in a way that is inspired by the region.

This is wonderfully illustrated by the example of wood: In East Tyrol in particular, we have sufficient healthy and continuously renewable forests and the corresponding companies that refine the raw material by hand and with a great deal of expertise and passion in the old tradition. From an ecological point of view, this saves a lot of CO2 emissions thanks to extremely short transport routes; from an economic point of view, it strengthens the region and creates meaningful jobs.

3. Schools made of wood

A clearly observable trend: A steadily growing proportion of new buildings in the teaching and education sector are now being constructed using wood, and wood is also increasingly at the top of the wish list when it comes to façade design. However, the use of wood is also proving extremely lucrative in the case of refurbishments or extensions to ageing buildings.

The hard facts

CLTPLUS is particularly popular with architects and planners due to its positive structural properties as well as the high degree of prefabrication and the associated short construction time. Clients, on the other hand, can plan on schedule and keep costs firmly under control. Building an educational facility out of wood therefore has numerous advantages, but ultimately the focus is always on the well-being of the children and the shared task of creating learning environments that encourage and challenge the youngsters individually.

Best practice for educational institutions with wood

Face-to-face teaching has long been a thing of the past, but most schools - especially existing ones - are often unable to keep up with the changing demands for independent learning in small groups.

While our offices, care facilities and workshops have undergone rapid change in terms of their equipment and facilities, our children are learning in environments that seem to have hardly changed since the beginning of the early 20th century.

Some buildings are setting a precedent

At Kindernest Steinfeld, for example, the health of the little ones was the top priority, so the daycare centre was built using timber frame and solid wood construction from CLTPLUS. And XAL, the manufacturer of luminaires and lighting systems from Graz, also had its company daycare centre constructed from several prefabricated room modules. A particular plus point: Even after completion, the modular building remains flexible and can be extended with additional room modules at any time. And the kindergarten in Gampern also relied on high-performance natural products from THEURL when choosing its materials.

KIGA, KITA, primary school

The new VS Saalbach-Hinterglemm is the best example of just how light, airy, open and inviting wood can be. A school you can touch. The research building Twin²Sim, which functions as an innovative test centre for sound and façades at the FH Salzburg, shows that students and lecturers also like to surround themselves with wood and devote themselves to the subject. Intensive research is being carried out here on the passive house-compatible timber construction architecture of tomorrow – a project that THEURL is happy to generously support. Other examples of the successful use of wood in educational facilities include the kindergarten in Brunn am Gebirge, the educational campus in Laxenburg, the elementary school in Stockerau and the school centre in Hollabrunn.

Further
through the
wood blog

Overview