Johanne Mose Entwistle
Associated Partner / Head of Impact / Anthropologist
Aarhus
jme@aart.dk
+45 22 50 78 40
Impact case | Vrå Children and Culture Centre
Creates well-being for students, teachers and community
A good physical environment in schools has a positive impact on the well-being of children, teachers and educators. This is especially true for sound levels, where good acoustics can enhance learning and reduce problems with concentration. In order to create an attractive learning environment, AART involved employees and students in the process of designing a new Vrå Children and Culture Centre in the Hjørring Municipality, where the focus is on learning, well-being, community and cohesion.
Impact
- 79% of teachers and educators feel that the physical environment has a positive impact on their own well-being
An attractive learning environment
During the process of creating an attractive new Vrå Children and Culture Centre, pupils, educators, and teachers were involved were involved in testing the design and interior, among other things. This created a sense of ownership from the start in connection with the commissioning of the new building and – importantly – an increased sense of community among the staff in the building.
The new Vrå Children and Culture Centre offers bright and open spaces with views both in and out, thus offering a transparent look into the classrooms and making it easy and safe for teachers to connect and communicate with each other. Throughout the building, niches have been created that are ideal for group work, reflection and socialising, thus improving student and employee well-being.
Figures from the National Satisfaction Survey show that the 4-9th grade students' satisfaction with the classrooms at the school has increased from 50% to 77% thanks to the move to the new school
Impact
- 74% feel that the physical environment has a positive impact on student well-being.
Cohesiveness in the building
The Vrå Children and Culture Centre consists of one building with associated age-appropriate phase houses. The room at the centre of the building functions as the heart, where you can quickly get an overview of the building. This room helps provide a shared identity and cohesion, and it serves as a social meeting place where the whole school comes together across grade levels. On a day-to-day basis, this means that collaboration across year groups is more informal than before, and people greet and interact with each other more.
The school's teachers and educators estimate that there is an increased interaction between the school's students in each phase (74%) and a better transition between school and after-school care (73%).
An open and active house
However, the Vrå Children and Culture Centre is not just for the school's students and staff. After hours, there is access to parts of the school, including the sports centre and the library, which are part of the building itself. Events and concerts are held in the central room and students relax here after school, while waiting for extracurricular activities in the sports centre. This creates better cohesion between the school and the local community and contributes to the perception of the Vrå Children and Culture Centre as a vibrant building.
There are many middle school students who stick around, even more than we expected. They’re also often here on weekends since it’s open. I think it’s great that there’s so much life hereQuote from school leadership
Acoustics as a tool
By using sound-absorbing materials etc. people say the acoustics in the Vrå Children and Culture Centre are one of its best features. Acoustics are an important factor in creating an attractive learning environment because good acoustics support immersive learning. But good acoustics also naturally result in students talking quieter and calming down, which improves the well-being of both students and school staff. Furthermore, the good acoustics make it possible to use different teaching methods, since others are not disturbed, for example, when – in particular – the younger students have movement in the classroom.
I think the best thing, however insignificant it may seem, is sound. When you walk into the building, you immediately notice that there’s such a nice sound, and I think it has a big impact on the students. It makes you tone things down a notch…”- Quote from one of the school's teachers
Behind the impact case
The impact case is based on an evaluation report conducted by our impact team from 2021-2023, collecting both qualitative and quantitative data. The AART Impact CompassTM is used as an evaluation tool throughout. The data collection is supplemented with data from the national well-being survey conducted by the Ministry of Children and Education.
Vrå Children and Culture Centre was created for Hjørring Municipality in collaboration with JAJA Architects, Søren Jensen as consulting engineer and NCC as contractor.
In 2022, Vrå Children and Culture Centre was named School Building of the Year and in 2023 won the Hjørring Municipality Architecture Award.
