Estonia’s leading furniture company Standard in cooperation with the design bureau Kuubis has created a new concept for a classroom of the future at the e-Estonian Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai
By now, Estonian company Standard has furnished more than 250 hotels, more than 40,000 rooms. Each hotel is unique and will always be designed, planned and produced accordingly. The furniture of the EXPO pavilion is a chance for Standard to showcase its possibilities and flexibility. There are pieces of the office furniture series, the special production for the café and, as a new concept, smart classroom furniture.
Design to encourage creativity
The idea for a classroom of the future was born with the EXPO team and created as a team effort to share Estonia’s education success story. The design bureau Kuubis has great experience in designing schools in Finland and combined their knowledge with the production skills of Standard. It’s a combination of digital learning and a flexible interior.
Estonia at EXPO Dubai – smart solutions for education innovation
As the design and architecture of a modern school needs mobility and flexibility, so it would be possible to rearrange the classroom setting effortlessly during a lesson.
According to Standard, a classic old-school classroom can be transformed into teamwork setup, communication and presentation set-up within minutes.
Each student has his own workplace that can be relocated and set up easily for different functions. The set-up can be changed to task-based, learning-pace-based or level-based.
There are mobile podiums to train performing and presentation skills, mobile walls and separators can be rearranged quickly to resize the room. Design can encourage interaction, mobility and confidence as well as nurture initiative and creativity instead of putting kids in ready-made boxes with standardised learning paths.
The furniture is mobile and dynamic and as such empowers social skills. But the school furniture also has to be sturdy and durable. It’s playful and colourful according to the age group. The single desk and chair are light enough so that kids can manage to rearrange the set-up by themselves.
Some of the elements will have access to communication networks, sockets and loading stations. So, perhaps this new innovative line of school furniture together with smart digital learning tools, will come to benefit kids in the Gulf region and beyond.
You can read the full article by Maris Hellrand in the Life in Estonia magazine.
