Tallinn Secondary School of Science's (Tallinna Reaalkool) new teaching building has been in use since the start of the current academic year, but the ceremony to confirm that took place today. The municipal school building cost about €32.7 million — around €10 million more than planned.

The interior is light and calm: plenty of oak veneer, walls and furniture in pale tones or terracotta, a color that also appears on floor tiles in the 142-year-old main building, tying old and new together. Teachers helped the architects with the design.

"For me the most important thing about the interior was functionality," said head of studies and physics teacher Daniel Kaasik. Physics teachers at the school, he added, had had a say in what they wanted in their classrooms.

The school now has room for its pupils for the first time, too. "The older school building was built for 300 pupils. Now there are 950–1000," Kaasik noted.

There are three physics classrooms and four laboratories in the new building, as well as sound-absorbing ceilings, a separate floor for younger pupils, terraces and a courtyard, and a new underground gym. The school canteen is housed there too, and has been designated smartphone-free.

The City of Tallinn's property department said the original 2024 estimate of €22.3 million covered only the new extension, and that restoring the historic main building and archaeological excavations — budgeted at €300,000 but costing about €1.4 million — had been responsible for pushing the total up.

The work to build the new facility was also preceded by a major archaeological dig, rich in findings.

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