The preparatory class of Hatanpää school carried out a creative place making project with the Association of Cultural Heritage Education in Finland and visual artist Mollu Heino, in which they made a mural on the outside staircase of their school. The young people who came to Finland as refugees designed a piece of the urban environment, which was anchored to the urban cultural heritage as a new, temporal stratification. During the process, the young people reflected on the good and bad aspects of their school environment and gathered ideas on how it could be improved.

Young people want colors and greenery

Young people’s ideas were gathered in the place making project in many ways. The orientation was made by exploring the school yard on a walking tour, where they observed the environment in its present state, delved into the past of the place and envisioned its future.

The young people took photos of the school’s surroundings and picked out good and bad points. Elements of nature, such as vegetation, were considered the best things. Garbage and untidiness were considered unpleasant. Based on the photos, the students created dream maps in which they planned how the school environment could be improved. Dreams and ideas were shared among the group. The young people especially wanted greenery and colors alongside the concrete.

Based on the young people’s wishes, visual artist Mollu Heino started designing a mural. Abundance, floral splendor and colors emerged as themes from the young people’s dream maps. Based on a sketch made by Heino, the young people designed different flowers in small groups, which the artist composed into a whole. Based on the plan, the painting was carried out together with the young

Here you can find the policy brief to the local government: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXa0FxFbEvw