A healthy school with calming, coherent interiors

North of Stockholm, we find the newly-built school Töjnaskolan. Its students can now attend a certified sustainable school, rated silver by the Sweden Green Building Council, that provides an excellent setting for learning and well-being.

The rapid growth of Sollentuna, a municipality north of Stockholm, prompted it to expand its facilities to include more daycare centres and schools. One of them is Töjnaskolan, whose brand-new school building and sports facility give it sufficient capacity for the many future schoolchildren in the area. Construction began in 2018, and Töjnaskolan could open its doors in the 2020/2021 school year to 650 students dispersed over three parallel tracks from reception class to 9th year.

White Architects designed the school and Erlandsson Bygg was the contractor.

Töjnaskolan covers 7,000 square metres, and if you proceed through the main entrance you end up in the heart of the school. From here you can access the school dining hall, library, music hall, café and the school’s creative learning environments, such as home economics and workshops. A central staircase leads up to the other floors where administration, staff rooms and laboratories are located.

The sports facility covers 2,000 square metres and has its own street entrance, but it is also directly connected to the heart of the school.

Natural materials and colours

Priority was given to using natural materials that exude calm and coherence. For example, the wooden-slatted walls create a warm, pleasant atmosphere, combined with the other materials. Troldtekt acoustic panels were selected for the ceilings, whose panel colours are adapted to the individual rooms – all in subdued, natural hues.

The school’s sports facility is also clad with Troldtekt panels. This helps ensure that sounds of students doing sports do not bother others. Beyond this, Troldtekt is a robust material that is not affected by the hard impacts of ball-playing, for instance.

Bright colours designate school areas with a distinct function. The colours of corridors, hallways, etc. are kept in neutral shades to ensure their functionality for an extended period of time.

A sustainable school

Töjnaskolan was built to meet the standards stipulated for the silver category of the Sweden Green Building Council. The standard was used as a checklist throughout the process to determine aspects such as the choice of materials. Particular focus was brought to bear on creating a healthy indoor climate, as this has a big impact on students’ ability to concentrate and learn.

Troldtekt is a certified Cradle to Cradle acoustic solution and contributes to 20 per cent of the criteria stipulated by the Sweden Green Building Council, including the ‘sound environment’ and ‘phase-out of hazardous substances’ criteria.