Westerlundska Upper Secondary School, Enköping

A place to be seen

At ground level in the teaching wings, the dining hall sits alongside a creative cluster: a makerspace, media studios and spaces for arts education. On the other side of the courtyards are special needs facilities and the school kitchen. In contrast to the old school’s sprawling layout and enclosed corridors, everything here feels closer and more connected. The entrance hall is always busy – a place to move through, to pause, to talk. A common room where everyone belongs.

Natural and robust

The school is defined by natural, durable materials: a timber structure, natural stone in the entrance hall, and brick screen cladding on the facade. Internally, the timber frame’s beams and columns are left exposed where possible, complemented by a palette of soft natural pastels and earth tones in line with Enköping Municipality’s guidelines for educational environments. The street-facing facade is urban and assured in its expression, while an extension on the courtyard side gives the dining hall generous contact with the outdoors – a seamless transition between inside and out.

Considerable care has gone into making the dining hall feel intimate and human in scale, despite its size. During lunch service it can be separated from the entrance hall by a folding wall of steel and glass; at other times it opens up fully, available for other uses. An outdoor dining terrace facing south is there for the finer days.

Where conditions allow – south or southwest-facing roof surfaces – solar panels are installed across a combined area of just over 1,000 square metres.

An open and generous environment

The interior design is informal, inviting and creatively permissive. The school contains a range of learning environments: base rooms for full-class teaching, group rooms for smaller work, and study areas for individual or collaborative use. Informal study spots and social spaces are distributed throughout the teaching wings and the entrance hall. The interior palette builds on a base of timber and light tones, with complementary colours and materials forming a backdrop to the learning environments.

Open to the wider community

The building is designed to serve more than just its students. The assembly hall is a flexible space for 500 people, intended to function as the meeting chamber for Enköping Municipal Council and available for external hire outside school hours. The same applies to the makerspace and three larger base rooms, each accommodating 75–80 people. The school kitchen prepares meals for a number of care homes and preschools, and during holidays the school is hired out for overnight stays during larger sporting events and tournaments.

White carried out the feasibility study, sustainability programme and design brief for the new school, working with active cost management throughout.