Design, quality and acoustics in the school
When Pretzel school, in Sweden, decided to grow from purely a primary school to a joint primary and secondary education facility, they knew they needed a bigger premises and lots of new classroom furniture. AJ Products was involved in outfitting the classrooms, staff rooms, break rooms and hallways. Attention to design, practicality, quality and acoustics were the key areas to focus on.
When the school opened, in 1998, it was a small primary school. It has grown steadily in size since then. But recently, they decided to expand the school so that there were two, with students from preschool to ninth grade. The expansion meant a rise of the total number of students from 320 to 520. The new school building was completed in Autumn 2015 and AJ Products has been supplying furnishings for everything from the classroom and corridor to the staff room.
"We had decided to work with AJ Products at an early stage in the development as they were quick to prepare proposals and drawings for us," says Marie Alfaro, Headmistress.
Practicality, acoustics and quality
Marie and her colleagues had three wishes when it came to the decor; First of all, the sound or noise in the school environment had to be minimal. This was achieved with the help of acoustic flooring and partly by choosing student desks with sound-absorbing surfaces. Secondly, it was important that the furniture was able to withstand the wear and tear that they are subjected to in a school environment with hundreds of students. Thirdly, they wanted to put a little extra emphasis on design, colour and form. The school walls were painted in soothing colours, while the interior of the classrooms and corridors followed a different themes; Maths classroom is red, social room is turquoise, Spanish room is purple and the two halls green and red.
Students’ wishes in mind
The thoughts of the students was considered very important in the design process. Ergonomic student chairs can be found in the majority of classrooms, which proved to be a hit with students and teachers alike: "The student ergonomic chairs are adapted to today's equipment like tablets and computers, and promote good posture.", "The chair is super-trendy! We got to try it before we decided." and "WOW what a chair!"Professional help from beginning to end
Both students and teachers are happy with their new facilities, they were pleasantly surprised with the first day of the semester."We wanted a company to help us throughout the entire process, from design to installation, and AJ Products was that company. It’s worked so well and we are very satisfied!" says Marie Alfaro.
