Aurora school is a community-oriented building, which gathers all its functions in a single unit. The building is located on the edge of a cultural historically significant park connected to Träskenda manor house dating from the 18th century and famous for Aurora Karamzin who owned the manor in 1840–1895.

According to a current trend in Finnish school design, the plan of the building reminds a palm with fingers; in this case three thick fingers. The solution stems from placing the assembly hall and canteen as the functional core of the building, which is surrounded by an ascending auditorium, a multipurpose hall, a stage, and a gym. Regular teaching spaces are in the south-eastern, day-care in the western and special classrooms and clinic spaces in the northern wing or “finger”.Aurora school has a very distinctive appearance towards the main yard in the south. It is comprised of white oblique and slender structural beams against a red backdrop of the façades and a roof that extends to a canopy. The roof rises from one-storey high daycare wing to three-storeys high school wing almost like a ski slope.

The cosy atmosphere inside is created by the use of wood in ceilings, walls and floors and fair-faced concrete in structures and surfaces in the central hall. Long crisscrossing vistas through the building bring light and brightness to the deep volume. Aurora school was a zero-energy pilot project and the most energy-efficient municipal building in Espoo when it was completed.

Text: Petteri Kummala