The college building has been renovated for use by the Helsinki Adult Education Center.
Helsinki Adult Education Centre is located at Runeberginkatu 22–24, Etu-Töölö, in a building that was originally completed as a girls' high school in 1923. The building has been completely renovated for the operation of the centre.
Architect Onni Tarjanteen The building on Runeberginkatu, designed by and completed in 1923, is a classicist red-brick architecture. The building served as the first Finnish-language girls' high school, or "tyttönors" or "tipula". When the building became too small, the girls' high school moved to The Hague in the late 1960s and the premises were acquired by the Helsinki School of Economics. The functions located in the Aalto University School of Economics building moved to Otaniemi in 2019.
The building, which is of cultural and historical value, has been renovated.
The school building provides a pleasant and safe environment to support learning and well-being. There are 23 lecture and group work spaces for studying, equipped with modern AV equipment. In addition, the building has special rooms, such as a handicrafts class, two art classes, three sports and multi-purpose rooms, a science class, IT classes, a language studio and a media workshop. The auditorium on the first floor can be divided into two different spaces. The cosiness is enhanced by a living room for students, which has separate desks. The building also has changing rooms and showers.
The ballroom is located on the third floor of the building. Artist Hilkka Toivolan The triptych painted in 1947 depicts the human life cycle from youth to middle age and old age. The last graduation ceremonies of the hundred-year-old Girls' Normal High School were held in the same ballroom in May 1969. Old Norse maidens visited their old school in 2021.
The building has been renovated internally to make it suitable for school activities.
The Runeberginkatu property has a gross floor area of approximately 8 square meters. Innovarch provided the main, architectural and interior design for the project. Vahanen PRO was involved in the project by organizing user-participatory design workshops on modern service design.
“One of the challenges in the design has been to locate a sufficient number of teaching spaces for different purposes,” says the chief designer. Tuula Tuononen. “The activities are largely based on traditional classroom teaching and group work, and so the original space division has been restored. A large part of the space has been used for offices but is now being returned to teaching purposes.”
“Another challenge was the central location, which is why demolition work, for example, had to be planned carefully,” says the building architect. Antti Kukkonen. “Not many technical changes were made to the building's surroundings, but the building's technical arrangements were mainly renewed inside the building.”
Architect Piritta Hannula Innovarchista highlights the extensive renovation work on the mezzanine and building services, among other things, to ensure indoor air quality. “In terms of construction, almost all walls are load-bearing and the structure is stable. The open staircase located in the corner of the building is challenging in terms of both fire safety and acoustics in light of current regulations. However, the original openness of the lobby can be restored, for example with the help of glass walls. Other technical solutions to be renewed in connection with the renovation include ventilation, electricity and lighting, and additional cooling to the office spaces.”
The five-story building of the Helsinki Adult Education Centre, which houses the civic college and basic education facilities, is designed to have the best possible occupancy rate, meaning users at different times of the day. The building also houses Helbus.
"The lease agreement for the Helsinki Adult Education Institute guarantees the continuity of educational activities in the traditional school building in Töölö," says the principal. Kari Karvonen. “With the move, we want to create the college as a new Helsinki center for learning and well-being in the 2020s. We invite our old and new students to enjoy themselves with us in even better and more multifunctional facilities.”
The property is owned by the special investment fund eQ Hoivakiinteistöt, which aims for long-term ownership of national assets and long-term lease agreements with public benefit entities. The lease agreement was signed in 2018.
Project in the media
More information
Principal Anne Leinonen, anne.leinonen@helao.fi or Kari Karvonen, Executive Director of the Finnish Student Union of White-collar Workers, kari.karvonen@helao.fi.