Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2016 | Page 42

Espoo is championing a new
‘School as a Service’ concept

Photo: Tiina Primietta

Flex Your Ed

The City of Espoo is convinced that a school is no longer about
walls and blackboards – or even teaching, for that matter.
More and more, the focus turns to learning itself.

C

onventional school space does not support today’s school kids – these digital
natives – in the best possible way. With
this in mind, the City is launching a concept
by the name of School as a Service, which
revolves around shared resources. For example: not every school has to have a gym or a
soccer field, as long as there is convenient
access to them when needed.
One of the original developers of the
concept is Aalto University Professor Jarmo
Suominen, who started to consider, if it was

Photo: Andreas Meichsner

40 Nordicum

possible to bring improved flexibility into
the way schools use real estate and other
assets. The idea was well received by the
City and developed further on.

Fix it!
Suominen says that School as a Service
(SaaS) concept can be viewed as a service
innovation – in contrast to the traditional
school-building process which focuses on
product innovation.

“Right now, we see that school as a
‘product’ is kind of broken down, and the
solutions that are produced are inflexible as
circumstances are rapidly deteriorating.”
All that is needed now is a pilot to
test the waters. In fall semester 2016, the
concept will be tried out in earnest at Aalto
University as the 350 students of Haukilahti
high school take to the grounds. The idea is
to fully utilise the flexible learning spaces
located at the Otaniemi Campus. As the
facilities are adaptable and allow users to