Maatulli School, Day-Care and Playground

The proposal “Metsäaukio” by Fors Arkitekter and Rebecka Blomqvist for the new Maatulli school, day-care and playground building won a two-stage architectural competition by the City of Helsinki. Talli is responsible for the principal and architectural design of the project in Finland. Construction on the site has begun in August 2022.   

The new school building will replace the old Maatulli school. It is located in Tapulinkaupunki in the Puistola station area along a track with restricted traffic and situated freely in the open landscape of a park, while following the same principals as the surrounding built environment.   

The building will be the central service building and multi-purpose high-profile building of Tapulinkaupunki. At the center of the new building is nature. Yard and square areas are integrated into the existing park landscape with paths and existing trees, and terrain shapes are spared—the idea being the seamless joining of the school plot with the surrounding park landscape. 

Nature also comes inside the building: the school and day-care facilities revolve around the glass courtyard, Metsäaukio (“Forest Square”). The school and the square can be accessed almost equally from all directions. However, the main entrance faces the Maatulli’s square to the north, thus implementing the ideal of making the school building part of the Maatullinkuja public space series. The anonymous reliefiness of the wood-built school façades connects different parts of the building to each other. Recognizability has been created for the five different “houses” of the building by varying fenestration according to the intended use. The interiors’ scale is intimate and homey. Indoor and outdoor spaces repeat a unified variety of materials.