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An ideal way to provide the next generation with a healthy planet is to give them the right start; in a climate-smart school. But wooden schools are a good idea for other reasons too. All the evidence shows that students in wooden schools feel calmer, concentrate better and are more creative than students in other schools.
Use our guideline to explore sustainable school design from a material that keeps growing back.
There is an urgent need for more educational facilities and wood is poised to play a vital role in the sustainable construction of new schools.
Watch our webinar and listen to a panel of experts discuss building wooden schools for the next generation.
Give students the best chance of success by providing the perfect learning environment. Students simply feel better and can focus better in wooden schools.
A one-year Austrian study* compared high-school students in a school fitted with linoleum floors and plasterboard walls with students in wooden classrooms. The students in the wooden classrooms had decreased heart rates and a decreased perception of stress. Other studies have shown lower blood pressure and higher concentration levels in wooden schools as well as increased creativity in wooden evironments**.
Listen to our podcast about biophilic design.
Studies reveal that students in wooden classrooms have lower levels of stress, tend to be able to concentrate more, tend to have less conflicts, and obtain better grades.
(proHolz Steiermark and Holzcluster Steiermark, 2009)
Wooden environments have been shown to decrease cortisol levels by 7.5%, which suggests wood has a relaxing effect on people.
(Kotradyova, Vavrinsky, Kalinakova, Jansakova, Boles, Svobodova, 2019
Rooms with exposed wood or stone surfaces have a higher potential of inspiring creativity than artificially produced surfaces.
(McCoy and Evans, 2010)
Natural materials like wood don’t just look and feel better to those interacting with them, but wood has the benefit of removing CO2 from the atmosphere and storing carbon during its lifetime.
Let’s start providing the next generation with climate-smart schools and build a better future. A wooden school is a low carbon, renewable alternative that can help mitigate climate change and can help your local area reduce emissions and improve its sustainability profile.
Read our sustainability case study to find out more about designing low carbon schools.
An increasing amount of evidence shows that the benefits of wood as a construction material go beyond sustainability. Wooden buildings have a positive effect on health and wellbeing and foster creativity.
Read our whitepaper to explore the health and wellbeing benefits of wooden buildings on people living and working in wooden environments. The whitepaper is a summary of scientific research data gathered by a research team at the Technical University of Munich.
Get in touch to find out how we can help you design and build sustainable schools for the next generation.