Education – a Shared Concern

 

– There are fewer young teachers under 30 years old than those who have reached retirement age. In 10 years, there will practically be no teachers in Poland. We need to ensure that the workplace for these individuals, their social status, and their sense of mission are as high as possible, because otherwise, no one will want to work with children. We want to show how to achieve this at Warsaw’s Mokotów district – we discuss a joint project for an elementary school with Małgorzata Turek (a member of the Echo Investment board) and Natalia Paszkowska (co-founder of the WWAA studio). 

 

Marcin Szczelina: Where did the idea to collaborate with WWAA come from?

Małgorzata Turek: It stemmed from the fact that it’s a fantastic architectural studio, and Natalia is a co-creator of educational building standards for the capital city of Warsaw. That’s her unique expertise. For us at Echo Investment, this is the first educational building we’re undertaking, so we reached out to someone with the right experience who could help us create something wonderful. We also found another great partner – the director of Warsaw Primary School No. 119, who has been involved in the planning process from the beginning. This institution will be relocated to the building we’re creating. It’s the first public school being built by a private developer, a project carried out under the so-called developer’s law, which allows the transformation of industrial areas into residential ones. It also provides additional privileges for the district, which the developer must ensure – accompanying investments specified by the city authorities, indicating what is needed in the area. In our case, it was a full-fledged, two-track school accommodating 450 children. It is accompanied by public green spaces, road reconstruction, and so on. The City Council passed a resolution on the investment’s location, then we obtained a construction permit, and now we can start building it. 

 

What kind of limitations did you encounter in connection with the developer’s law?

Natalia Paszkowska: We follow the instructions of the President of the capital city of Warsaw, which determine, among other things, the distance of the school from the newly designed housing estate or the number of children statistically estimated in relation to each residential investment. In this case, it was significantly smaller if calculated purely arithmetically. However, Echo Investment will build a school for over 100 more children, allowing the facility to meet a specific social need and provide education in two teaching tracks (Class A and B), from preschool to eighth grade. This will both enable the employment of full-time teachers and meet parents’ expectations for their child to have care within one school, the same building, from ages 6 to 14.

MT: It’s an industrial area where there are no schools. We are creating a new district, and this institution is one of its components. We want to transform this part of the city—previously known mainly as an office hub—into a comfortable place for everyday life: offering easy access to public transportation, education, services, and interesting ways to spend free time.

NP: Additionally, the school must be put into use before the first Echo Investment clients move into their apartments—its implementation will take precedence.

 

 

Natalia, where did your interest in the topic of education come from?

NP: For as long as I can remember, social projects were the ones that gave us the most satisfaction. My diploma project focused on the revitalization of a housing estate with large-panel buildings, and Marcin, the co-founder of WWAA, chose to design a center for refugees on Dobra Street—he visited facilities, conducted interviews with their staff, and mapped out their needs. Recently, we talked about how, 20 years later, these two topics are still just as relevant, if not more so. One of the first projects we realized as part of a winning competition was a cultural center in Służewiec. It remains our favorite project to this day. Thanks to it, we have relationships with people, real users of the space that we, together with Jacek Sukiennik, designed. They genuinely spend time there, and their children attend classes there too. It’s a place that was meant to benefit the local community, and I hope it’s proving successful. That’s probably the greatest satisfaction one can have in this profession.

 

The facility you’re talking about, besides winning probably all possible awards, is indeed innovative because it presents a completely different approach to education and culture.

NP: We have incorporated into our design standards the idea that spaces related to education or culture should be egalitarian – so that a person just passing by on a stroll with their dog has a chance to encounter them. This was achieved in the cultural center. In schools, the entrance area is very important to us. I regret greatly that most primary schools in Warsaw are erased from the city, hidden behind various spatial obstacles and architectural interventions, resulting in schools not contributing to the common social space. Yet, schools are one of the reasons why we live in cities at all. In the era of traffic jams, smog, or remote work, many people stick to large cities to provide educational and social opportunities for their children. Therefore, we should build schools in the best possible locations, making them the center of social life. Another issue is the immense crisis in education. We will face an increasing shortage of teachers. There are fewer young teachers under 30 than those who have reached retirement age and stayed in the profession. If this trend continues, in 10-20 years, there will practically be no teachers in Poland. We need to ensure that their workplace, social status, and sense of mission are as high as possible; otherwise, no one will want to work with children. On one hand, it’s about the well-being of the youngest, on the other, the teachers, and on the third, involving parents in the process and creating safety at the level of social control, understood as creating social interactions that allow discovering if someone hasn’t been at school for a week or another child doesn’t have a second breakfast. The more relationships, the easier it is to map certain problems and try to help. We won’t solve all problems through cameras, surveillance, and electronic logs.

 

When a new innovative school emerges, it is widely covered in the media. Studios like XYstudio, which executes such projects from public comissions, undertake such initiatives.

NP: There are first signs of change. We observe and are pleased with every new project for a good school, kindergarten, or the modernization of an existing facility. We were recently in the mentioned School No. 119, which will be relocated to the building created by Echo Investment. The reality there is oppressive—dampness, unfriendly colors, lack of ventilation. There are studies in Polish schools that say we have undergone thermal modernization, the temperature in the classroom reaches almost 30°C, with CO2 levels often exceeded because proper ventilation wasn’t ensured in insulated or sealed buildings. As adults, we care about working in beautiful offices with excellent ventilation, good temperature, lighting, and acoustics. Children work for 8 hours a day, intellectually challenging themselves, often in poor conditions, so we’re talking about a lack of basic needs being met.

MT: When designing a new housing estate, it’s crucial to think about both the residential and functional aspects for all generations. Therefore, we will build a school that meets today’s standards. One of the key principles of the planned facility on Konstruktorska Street is to give it, in addition to its educational function, a dimension important for the entire local community. WWAA has designed an open entrance square that can serve as a neighborhood center. Directly from the square, you can access a public library or, through the main entrance, the sports facilities block. The entrance hall, along with the open cafeteria, can be a place for debates or meetings of the local community outside school hours.

 

What, in your opinion, are good practices and case studies – how to design schools and kindergartens differently than usual?

NP: I believe that a school has three pillars, namely teachers, parents, and children. The building is very important, but whether a particular school is good boils down to the people. I know modest schools, kindergartens, including from the experiences of my children and their peers, where the building conditions are terrible, but there are teachers who can create a unique atmosphere. I hope that architects can contribute a little to strengthening the sense of belonging by designing buildings where a sense of security also comes from the fact that everyone meets in comfortable, friendly conditions.

 

 

Will this school be a role model? What will distinguish it?

MT: It’s important that the school has been designed to satisfy children’s natural curiosity and promote responsible citizenship and environmental behavior. It will be friendly and open.

NP: It will be friendly from the outset because it is quite intimate. A two-track school means Class A and B, and we all went to schools labeled A, B, C, D… I know that Warsaw has a policy to move away from building large schools and expanding existing ones. An educational institution with 450–600 students has the opportunity to create a community that ensures the safety of recognizing each other’s faces. For me, the scale of this school is very promising. Here, the Echo Investment team had a strong input, saying at the very beginning of the design process: “no endless corridors!” This is the most commonly encountered, economic model of a school. We managed to develop a cluster, group system. We have classes grouped in threes, with additional recreational space. If children want to meet in a larger group, there is also a hall with an open cafeteria where the entire school community can mix. Additionally, the youngest children, from preschool, have their separate world. The intimacy of the school and the communication-recreational spaces help non-neurotypical children, whose diagnoses are increasingly common. It also benefits the teachers because it reduces fatigue due to reduced noise and a decreased number of stimuli.

 

Have the changes of recent years influenced how the school will look?

NP: It’s one of our fundamental principles is that the school building should be flexible. As Poles, we experience frequent changes in the education system, such as the need to accommodate secondary school students. We also see significant demographic changes in Poland and increased interest in remote learning. In June, cloud schools closed with around 19 thousand students, and in September, they reopened with over 35 thousand. The question is whether the traditional school, where one comes for 8 hours a day like to a factory, will still be relevant in a few years.

MT: I think public libraries will expand because high school students are moving there for their studies. It might be similar to hybrid work. We’ll see which direction everything will turn—towards division or emphasis on direct contact. Certainly, the first grades of primary school will be a space where children will be more together.

NP: Unfortunately, I also see a threat in class divisions. The pandemic has shown that some children, often those whose parents worked remotely, could be adequately cared for at home during learning. However, not everyone had such an opportunity, and many children ‘disappeared’ from the system. It’s a huge challenge to ensure that the revolution is balanced.

 

How did you endure to address the issue of sustainable design in the case of this school, for example, by the choice of materials?

NP: This building is quite revolutionary for us because we managed to design it with a hybrid structure—it is partially wooden. Photovoltaic panels are installed on the roof, and graywater will be used for flushing toilets. The interiors may seem quite raw because they are devoid of additional layers that serve only to cover, for example, installations—all of them will be laid out on the surface. The walls will be carefully built from untreated concrete blocks. In short, we are removing everything from the interiors that serves only to make it smooth and monochromatic, and after years, it looks awful. It’s a waste of energy at the resource level.

 

I would like to ask you about the theme of the issue—mindfulness in architecture towards the other person and space. What does it mean for you from the perspective of an architect and a developer?

NP: A year ago, I learned that in Germany, as a rule, it is expected that different parties—from left to right—should come to an agreement if they enter the government. It seems to me that here it’s exactly the opposite—we expect our politicians not to agree with each other. I have the impression that, in the longer term, this leads us to disaster. For me, the fundamental value is seeking understanding with every person, even with radically different views. In my opinion, this is the most important thing in every field, not only in design but also in everyday life.

MT: We focus on projects that we call destinations. They are characterized by great diversity. Browary Warszawskie (Warsaw Breweries) are one example—not a homogeneous product, not just offices and apartments. We combine everything, seeking the understanding that Natalia mentioned. It turns out that this is the best way to build. A school, as part of a larger project, also fits into this, becoming a factor that connects the new housing estate. Its social function is important to us. Another element is the transformation of the industrial Służewiec into something completely new, caring for the needs of our users. Offices alone are not enough because when the lights go out, the space becomes lifeless. Apartments alone won’t be good either; restaurants, green spaces, education, and cultural places are also needed. Mindfulness is a holistic perspective on investments and listening to the needs of the city.