Nekala Cultural Centre

Nekala school is to be renovated into a vibrant and diverse cultural centre that will enable artists to work, visitors to experience art and residents to engage in communal activities. A major renovation focusing on improving indoor air quality will start at the beginning of 2024 and finish at the end of 2025, and then the doors will opened to residents and new actors.

Library, courses and events

Once the renovation is complete, the library will return from the container to its familiar location to serve the local residents. At an event arranged for the residents of Nekala on 2 November 2021, the residents emphasised their desire for a communal space to be used for events, lounging and personal activities or working, as well as their desire to make the library, which would also have staff present in addition to the self-service hours, a safe place for children to do their homework and spend their time. These wishes are the starting point for the design of the new library. Alongside the library, the aim is to offer activities open to the general public such as a small café, a culture shop and art exhibitions, on the lower floors. On the different floors, different actors will organise activities open to all or for limited audiences. Depending on the chosen actors, these activities may include music lessons, painting courses, work demonstrations and workshops, for example. The former gymnasium will be transformed into an event venue where regular events will take place. Some of the spaces will be privately used by artists.

For example, the Adult Education Centre of the Tampere Region will move its workshop that is currently operating in Onkiniemi, among other locations, to the new cultural centre. In addition to courses, the workshop that will be built in the school’s handicrafts classroom, will allow local residents and artists to make their own handiwork. Other courses are also planned for the school premises.

Space for artists and associations – preliminary call for applications is open

The majority of the building will be made available to associations and artists. The aim is to create a living community where new collaboration will be born. The classrooms and workspaces of the old school will provide space for around 40 different actors. An operator responsible for the leasing of the premises to the actors (excluding the library and the Adult Education Centre) and for the development of the cultural activities and events will be selected as the site’s main tenant through a concession contract awarded after competitive tendering. The tendering process will compensate for the rent expenses at the cultural centre to non-profit cultural actors and associations.

The competitive tendering to select the operator is scheduled for the winter of 2024–2025. When the operator has been selected, the actual call for actors will be opened. However, we are already interested in hearing what kind of activities you would be interested in organising in the building or what kind of facilities you would like to lease, which is why we have opened a preliminary call for actors. Ideas and wishes are welcome!

Information about the progress of the project will be sent to those who submit their contact details 1–3 times per year. Those who have registered on the preliminary list will be the first to hear about the opening of the call for tenants. Networking events for actors interested in the facilities will also be arranged. The preliminary call for actors is non-binding.

Renovating a cultural centre

The Nekala Cultural Centre project is based on a cultural venue survey conducted by the City of Tampere in the winter of 2020–2021, which highlighted the need for new cultural spaces. The City Council decided that the decommissioned Nekala school was the primary option to meet the needs.

Condition inspections and surveys revealed that extensive measures involving the technical building services and structural engineering elements were necessary to improve the building’s indoor air quality. In addition, minor functional improvements will be made and a provision has been made for the replacement of any systems and building elements that have reached the end of their estimated technical service life. Only moderate functional modifications will be made to keep the costs in check, and the future tenants will be responsible for adapting the premises for the desired purpose.

History of Nekala school

The history of the Nekala school building goes all the way to the year 1930. The east and west wings and the main entrance hall were extended in the 1950s. The school was refurbished and extended in 2009. The building has four stories, a basement and an attic.

The school’s oldest part dates back to 1930 (architects Bertel Strömmer and Jaakko Laaksovirta). The school premises were arranged symmetrically on either side of the entrance hall, with lobbies and classrooms on four floors in the middle part of the building and the other spaces such as the gymnasium, a handicrafts classroom and staffrooms in the lower wings at the ends of the lobbies.

In the 1950s, the east and west wings and the main lobby were extended (architects Bertel Strömmer, Mikael Nordenswan and Pekka Pussinen). The east wing and its facilities (the handicrafts classroom and gymnasium) were ‘lengthened’ towards the school yard, and the west wing was extended parallel to the street almost to the edge of the plot. A cafeteria and a kitchen were placed on the first floor of the west wing, while the second floor housed five classrooms and a teaching kitchen with its own dining room. Five classrooms, a staffroom and storage space for teaching equipment were placed on the third floor of the wing.

The school was refurbished and extended in 2009 (architect Arkkitehdit A3 Oy). Changes were made to the interior spaces due to the school’s activities (a space for individual teaching, a computer room, administration spaces), and improvements to the building’s accessibility and building technology were made (lifts for wheelchairs and ventilation machinery rooms). Apartments at one end of the west wing’s first floor and the old kitchen were converted into a library. The school’s kitchen was moved to the new extension and a new ventilation machinery room was built on the roof of the west wing. Some of the rooms in the basement of the east wing were lowered and other rooms were put to educational use.

The building ceased to be a school in 2018. At one time, the building also housed a dental clinic.