Hedlunda Pre-school, Umeå

A trailblazing pre-school – in more than one way

In Sweden, as in all Nordic countries, education is front and centre when it comes to societal priorities, and – unlike in some other places, where actual action sometimes falls short of intention – the country is allocating resources to the system that fully match its ambitions. This is nowhere truer than in Umeå. Located far up on the Baltic coast, 650km north of Stockholm, the city is home to slightly over 120,000 inhabitants. No less than 39,000 of them are university students!

Higher education, though, is only one part of the story. For Jonas Kjellander, “Pre-schools are the most important buildings, because they lay the groundwork for everything that follows. That’s why I have specialised in pre-school concepts”. Based on this rather unique know-how, the architect, who is part of Sweco, Sweden’s engineering behemoth – with over 17,000 employees in 13 countries – spearheaded the team that won the architecture competition for the ‘Hedlunda Förskola’ in Umeå.