Herrestaskolan

Winning wood pioneer

The project started after winning a competition for a new school for Barkarbystaden in Järfälla municipality, north of Stockholm, in 2011. The school was to include a preschool for around 100 children and a school for F-6 with around 450 students, as well as a library and sports hall for the district. During the design phase, it was investigated whether it was possible to build the school as a solid wood building, which Järfälla municipality wanted – and so it was. In 2015, Herrestaskolan was thus one of Sweden’s first schools built entirely of solid wood and is today considered a pioneer in modern wooden buildings, built with a frame, joists and interior walls of wood. The building covers a total of around 8,200 square meters with an associated large schoolyard that is also planned as an activity park, accessible to the entire district.

An important part of the project was to make the wood visible inside the building. All visible stairs and most walls have an exposed solid wood surface that is white-glazed. Walls with high acoustic requirements have been fitted with a sound-absorbing wooden slot panel, glazed in different colours according to department or activity.

The large entrance staircase has a room where children can play or read. From the main entrance you can reach the sports hall, library and dining room without having to enter the school premises. In this way, the entrance functions as a meeting place for the district.

Schoolyard with wooden details

The 10,000 m² schoolyard is designed as an activity park accessible to all residents of the city. In addition to two storage rooms, the yard has an outdoor stage with a glulam construction covered with a mountain panel. In the northeast corner of the block, the school’s parking lot is in the form of a parking garage that has been designed as part of the park by being covered with soil and vegetation, which creates a hilly part of the yard with opportunities for sledding and sitting on the terrace.