A Rex Chair was purchased for the Laine Unit at Alava School

“Our students are special, sensitive young people. When our school got new premises, we wanted to offer them unique furniture that caught the eye and was aesthetically beautiful. Martela, responsible for our school’s loose furniture, gave us a tip about Palad’s furniture from Kuopio. We familiarized ourselves with Palad’s rough, unique furniture at the Palad Showroom and we were immediately sold,” says Merja Laininen, principal of the Laine unit at Alava School.

Alava School’s Laine Unit operates in Kuopio at the KYS Laine Hospital, which opened in the Spring 2024. The KYS Laine Hospital is designed to meet the needs of mental health and well-being services. The students of the school that operates on the premises come from the Laine Hospital’s youth department and the youth psychiatric clinic.

Beautiful and multi-purpose furniture brightens the school’s everyday life, offers aesthetic experiences, and creates an experience for the facility users, that they are valued. In the Laine Unit of Alava School, the furniture must not only be attractive, but also safe, non-reflective, and easy to clean. Palad design furniture, designed according to the requirements of public spaces, met all the criteria.

The design from Kuopio catches the eye

The school’s lobby is designed as a community area where students and school staff spend time together playing board games and music. The interior of the lobby was brightened up with Palad’s modern and futuristic REX-T™ chair and TOWERI™ multifunctional furniture. Palad and Martela jointly designed the visual appearance of the Palad furniture so that the lobby became a unified, harmonious whole.

“The REX-T chair and a textile artwork created together by Kuopio-based artist Satu Nisu and our students form a wonderful and unique eye-catcher in the lobby. It was important for us to get local design into the school premises, which we can proudly present to visitors and which we can all enjoy in the school’s everyday life,” says Laininen.

The sturdy and heavy REX-T chair is not only fascinating visually but also safe. The nest-like chair feels safe for young people and stays solidly in place. REX-T has also created a fun and community-strengthening pun shared by staff and students: REX-T as “reksin tuoli”, which in Finnish means “the chair of the headmistress”.

“Students may jokingly tell each other, don’t sit on it, it’s the “reksin tuoli / chair of the headmistress!” The students have taken the REX-T chair as their own, and everyone takes turns sitting in the chair, students, teachers, other staff, and also the headmistress”, laughs Laininen.

“TOWERI is a brilliant piece of furniture that is not only a design piece but also a utility item. I could recommend TOWERI anywhere: schools, kindergartens, hotels, restaurants, and meeting rooms”

Merja Laininen | Principal of Laine Unit at Alava School

TOWERI serves many purposes

From the Palad collection, modular TOWERI multifunctional furniture was chosen for the lobby. TOWERI serves as a storage unit, worktop, and serving table, among other things. It is easy to do group work, hold meetings, and gather around to play games around the TOWERI tables that open in different directions.

“TOWERI is a brilliant piece of furniture that is not only a design piece but also a utility item. I could recommend TOWERI anywhere: schools, kindergartens, hotels, restaurants, and meeting rooms”, Laininen enthuses.

Laininen relates Palad’s design philosophy. Palad’s empathic footprint is based on empathy, cooperation, responsibility, supporting local entrepreneurs as well as sustainable development. Well-made timeless and fascinating furniture will serve users for a long time.

“I had seen the furniture in the lobby of KYS´s Puijo Hospital, but I didn’t know that it was Palad’s work too. At the Palad Showroom, the pieces started falling into place. I remembered seeing in the news Jaana and Heikki making stools of birch plywood that were like works of art. I was already attracted to Palad’s furniture at that time,” Laininen adds.