EKA PAKK is part of a new innovation project initiated by the Ministry of Education and Research. The project brings together experts in architecture, engineering and education to find smarter ways to renovate Estonia’s school buildings. The team includes representatives of the Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn University and Tallinn University of Applied Sciences. It focuses specifically on school buildings constructed from Soviet-era standard designs.
The partners were selected over the summer through a competition organised by the ministry together with the Government Office and the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency. A team from Tallinn University of Technology is working on the same challenge in parallel.
The team’s first step is to map the most common structural and spatial problems of standard school buildings. Based on this, they will develop a “smart client toolkit” to help municipalities and school leaders plan renovations more effectively and find proven solutions to recurring problems. The work takes place in joint workshops between the three institutions, where perspectives from architecture, engineering and education come together. The aim is not simply to fix up buildings. The project explores how space can better support learning, wellbeing and adaptability, and how good solutions can reach schools across Estonia.
This is the first innovation initiative of its kind in Estonia in the fields of architecture and engineering. The project is funded by the European Union’s cohesion policy funds and has a budget of 1.92 million euros.