Creating healthy schools and daycare buildings

by Tanja Rytkönen 18.11.2016

Natural materials help to create healthy and sustainable buildings for the use of children and their minders and teachers. Investment into the daily well-being at daycares and schools pays itself back in the health, safety and happiness of the future citizens inside the buildings.

For the investor, a log building also means a long-lasting and secure investment with reasonable building and operating costs.

Differentiate by investing in health and safety

A school or a kindergarten made of solid wood represents high ambitions towards the values of well-being, ecology and economy – this makes a clear statement and is a way of differentiation for the service provider. Especially for a private investor and operator, a healthy daycare centre or school is an effective way of building a strong image. Values related to health and ecology attract customers even across longer distances.

Daycare center Hiirulaisenkuja in Finland focuses on the  holistic welfare of children.

Schools and daycare buildings made using logs are becoming increasingly popular especially in the Nordic countries due to their undisputable benefits. However, these benefits do not automatically follow from simply using wood. The best way to ensure that your building employs the full potential of massive wood is to use tried and true log technology provided by the foremost pioneer in the industry.

Log buildings realised with Honka’s advanced log technology are:

• Durable: massive log structures serve their users for decades and even centuries
• Safe: structural and functional safety fulfils local building and safety regulations
• Healthy: research has shown that massive wood promotes well-being by reducing stress and lowering the heart rate
• Functional: log structures provide excellent acoustic features as well as great heating, cooling and indoor air moisture levels
• Flexible in design: Non-settling log structures offer architectural freedom with effective options for modularity – even on challenging building lots
• Efficient: log buildings are effective to produce, fast to build and easy to maintain
• Natural: built with genuine pine wood
• Ecological: the renewable raw material comes from sustainably managed forests and has a positive effect on climate change

Ideally, the opportunity to choose a healthy daycare centre or school for their children should be available to all families throughout the world. Therefore we encourage private and municipal investors to make a difference and promote a solution that will be both safe and productive.

Create room for perfect childhood education

A massive wood building is warm, healthy and comfortable – ideal for children and adults of all ages. As a material, wood helps to reduce stress and lower the heart rate. Naturally breathing structures also create high indoor air quality by effectively balancing the variations in air humidity. Furthermore, a log building feels fresh and cool in the heat of the summer and cosy and warm in the winter.

Daycare center Babilou in France was built for the children  of the Renault car factory.

Pine wood does not trigger allergies as it does not release any harmful emissions into the indoor air. In fact, a building with massive wood structures is filled with the pleasant scent of wood. The surface of pine is antibacterial by nature, which helps prevent the spread of pathogens in log buildings.

Architecture for all senses

Children learn with all senses. Thus a building material that provides positive experiences for the senses of touch, sight, and hearing (and, without a problem, also taste) provides an excellent environment for safe living and education.

School concept designed for Honkarakenne by Himla Architects.

The architectural and technical properties of the non-settling log introduced by Honkarakenne have enabled great architectural freedom, use of different material combinations and creating minimalistic details. The appearance of the building does not have to compromise the breathability and other benefits of massive wood.

Happy and healthy places for education

It is not easy to sum up all the advantages gained at the Touhula School and the Daycare Centre Hiirulaisenkuja in Finland. These are the latest examples of how a log building promotes the interests of both the users and the investors.

Touhula School in Kuopio is the largest log-constructed combination of a kindergarten and comprehensive school in Finland. The building has been built in two phases, encompassing a total of 900 m² of functional facilities for primary education.

The key benefit for the users has been the excellent indoor air quality which has significantly helped to prevent health problems and sick days. For the maintenance provider the breathing yet tightly insulated log building means reasonable heating costs.

The private Daycare Centre Hiirulaisenkuja in Oulu focuses on the holistic welfare of children. Therefore a modern log building was a natural choice to ensure a pleasant clean-air environment for the children.

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Healthy care and school construction

Read more about the benefits of log buildings and view inspiring concepts for schools, daycare centers and senior homes.