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Sammontalo
School and multipurpose building
Architects Antti Soini, Leo Lindroos, Tuuli Kanerva
Location Ruskonlahdenkatu 5–7, Lappeenranta
Gross Area 12 123 m2
Completion 2025
The first prize in the open competition brought the young architects a commission for a large school building. Read Kristo Vesikansa’s review → “Red on Red”
Photos Rasmus Norlander
Drawings NERVIN arkkitehtuuri
The main entrance to Sammontalo is located at the end of the pedestrian axis running between the Sammontori Shopping Centre (Sulo Savolainen 1988) and Sammonlahti Church (Riitta and Kari Ojala 1992).
The western part of the building, which houses the daycare centre and grades 1–2, is a kind of semi-independent “toddler house”.
In contrast to the rest of the building, the inner courtyard is dominated by light yellow brick and tiles with red accents.
The red is most intense in the lobbies and corridors, while in the classrooms, it mainly reveals the load-bearing solid wood structures. The remaining building parts have been left in their natural wood colour or have been painted light yellow.
The logic of using colour is also repeated in the fittings: the furniture frames are red but the door leaves are beige
The vertical structures of Sammontalo consist of GLT and CLT columns, as well as load-bearing and stiffening CLT panels. The horizontal structures are CLT-concrete composite slabs. The roof is a combined structure of timber trusses and CLT panels, into which the ventilation rooms are integrated.
