Project type:
Upper secondary school (Gymnasieskola)
A mix of natural sciences, technology, health, and entrepreneurship. A foundation for collaboration and innovation. A modern school and an inspiring workplace. That’s the essence of Widerströmska Upper Secondary School in Huddinge.
Just like the NEO and Technology and Health buildings, Widerströmska is part of the life science cluster that has taken shape in Campus Flemingsberg in recent years. Tengbom has been the lead architect for approximately 50,000 square metres here between 2012 and 2019.
The school, named after Karolina Widerström, Sweden’s first female medical doctor, now occupies one floor of the NEO building. Here, future researchers and entrepreneurs learn in close collaboration with the academic and healthcare institutions surrounding them.
Widerströmska upper secondary school’s entrance. Photo: Felix Gerlach
A life science hub for future innovators
Bright and inspiring classrooms
Inside, light, space, colour, and openness define the NEO building—and these qualities also shape the school’s interior. While the upper floors house cutting-edge research labs for Karolinska Institutet, the Widerströmska floor is designed to be a creative and inspiring learning environment.
Students and teachers can write directly on the walls, and large glass partitions ensure that natural daylight reaches every corner of the study spaces. A yellow-green carpet, running through all the classrooms, enhances the brightness even further.
“It has been incredibly exciting to help create a new upper secondary school that, through collaboration and synergies with academia, has become the first school with a life science profile.”
— Anna Morén Sahlin, lead architect
Design details create a cohesive identity
In collaboration with LINK Interior Architecture, Tengbom developed a material and colour scheme that aligns with the identity of the rest of the NEO building. Subtle design details connect the school’s interiors with the upper floors, including spiral staircases and accent colours in ceilings, doorways, and furniture.
A safe and social learning environment
Beyond classrooms and lecture halls, the school features a central gathering space known as Arenan, as well as a gym, science labs, café, multipurpose hall, and staff rooms.
A key priority in the project has been to foster a sense of social security and community. The spatial layout encourages interaction between students and teachers, with transparent environments and open sightlines.
“There are no hidden corners anywhere. Staff rooms are evenly distributed throughout the school, where students naturally spend their time.”
The school’s entrance and spaces. Photo: Felix Gerlach
Welcome to Nya Karolinska Solna – one of the world’s most sustainable teaching hospitals. Probably Sweden’s most comprehensive hospital project ever is also the single largest engine behind the development of Hagastaden – a new part of Stockholm city and a Scandinavian centre for Life Science.
A great investment to meet the care challenges of the future
Stockholm’s region is expanding at a furious rate. The population is expected to increase by 350,000 people between 2010 and 2020. The number of children and elderly is growing faster than other age groups at the same time as our life expectancy also continues to grow.
Most of our current hospitals were planned in the 1960–70s. They are not prepared for the current or future rapid development of medical technology, medications, new treatments or procedures. Nor do they meet the requirements of the modern patient. Just like in other industries, the need for interdisciplinary activities have increased also within the healthcare services not least the conditions for exchange of ideas between disciplines such as medicine, research and education – so called Life Science activities. The need for dedicated and flexible premises is overhanging.
Foto: Felix Gerlach
Foto: Felix Gerlach
Foto: Felix Gerlach
Foto: Felix Gerlach
To be able to meet the challenges of the future health care, Stockholm’s county council is making one of its biggest investments ever. We are preparing for a real boom in health care construction and NKS is a central element of this investment. The hospital will welcome its first patients in 2016 and reach completion in 2018.
Collaboration in the White Tengbom Team
NKS covers about 330,000 sqm and includes 730 patient care rooms, 35 operating theatres, and advanced technology for highly specialised care. The project also meets strict environmental requirements and presents enormous challenges for all partners involved. It is Sweden’s largest public-private partnership and the country’s most advanced BIM project. NKS is also the first hospital to achieve environmental certification according to both Swedish and international standards. To address the architectural challenges, we formed the White Tengbom Team in 2010. This project-specific company brought us together with the architectural firm White to design the hospital.
Around sixty of our architects, engineers and project managers have been involved in the project during the seven years that the project has been going on so far. The work will go on including a follow-up until the opening of the last stage in March 2018.
Flexible environments for sustainable development
Nya Karolinska Solna is designed to last approximately 100 years, even though future healthcare needs remain uncertain. With rapid medical advancements and technological leaps in mind, we planned the facility for maximum adaptability. Its flexible design allows for changes and renovations without disrupting surrounding activities.
High ceilings, robust joists and capacity in infrastructure and technical supply are examples of important investments, which allows the activity to develop in a sustainable manner over time.
Photo: Fredrik Sweger
Photo: Fredrik Sweger
Photo: Fredrik Sweger
Photo: Fredrik Sweger
Photo: Fredrik Sweger
Photo: Fredrik Sweger
The patient in focus
The key words for the entire NKS project are ”putting the patient first – always”. All the planning and design has been based on the patient’s safety, integrity and comfort which means that every patient is cared for in his/her own room with adjacent hygiene room. The single rooms offer greater integrity and safety and reduce the risk of both contagion and incorrect medications. The design of the rooms makes it possible for the healthcare professionals to work as a team with the patients and to closely collaborate with scientists and students who can come and visit in a completely new way. The health care is moved closer to the patients.
A healing atmosphere within Nya Karolinska Solna
We have taken great care to design healthcare facilities that have a positive impact on the patients. Light and volume shape the internal atmosphere, creating generous public spaces and numerous meeting places where people can mingle. In the interior, we have focused a lot in harmonious colours and natural materials.
The exterior of NKS showcases a minimalist elegance with a façade of glass, steel, and white tiles. The design of the hospital building is based on a block structure with right angles that is a continuation of the neighbourhood of Stenstaden right next door. A glass structure connects five buildings. Entrances and activities shall have as open a relationship as possible to surrounding streets and squares.
Foto: Felix Gerlach
The healthcare blocks connect to the research buildings in the north and Karolinska Institute’s new lab in the west. Between the health care and research facilities, the Academic street runs, tying together the New Karolinska Solna with the Karolinska Institute, which bridges Solnavägen via a new pedestrian and cycle bridge.
World leading Life Science cluster in Hagastaden
Stockholm County Council’s investment to meet future health care challenges included the vision of creating a Scandinavian centre and a catalyst within Life Science – a place where the business community, academia and clinical research, health care services can meet and interact. In the NKS project, the collaboration between health care, research and education has been the starting point for the architecture.
Illustration: Tengbom
Nya Karolinska Solna will also be the single most important motor behind the development of Hagastaden – the new district where Solna and Stockholm meet, and which when completed will offer approximately 5,000 new homes and 50,000 jobs of which just over 6 000 at NKS. We are creating a science city for cutting edge education and research under the common name Stockholm Life. The main building of the hospital will form the focal point of Hagaplan, the new town square.
Awards and Recognitions
NKS was nominated for the World Architecture Festival in the Completed Buildings: Health category in 2019 and was ranked fifth globally by Newsweek in 2025.
Giant laboratory to attract international scientists
Interior Design
Life Science, Offices
Client:
Location:
Lund
Years of commission:
2011-2016
Type of project:
Laboratory
Comptences:
Interior Design
In 2012, we were given the extremely exciting task by Lund’s university to do the interior architecture of MAX IV, a giant laboratory that will play host to approximately 1,000 scientists from the entire world every year. Here, we have developed everything from customized solutions in the lab environments to representative spaces for international guests and a good working environment for the employees.
The MAX IV laboratory is a national facility at Lund’s university as a world university. The laboratory’s accelerators produce X-rays of very high intensity and quality. Each year, 1,000 scientists from around the world use them for scientific research. The vision for MAX IV is that the facility will be a world leader of its kind.
Photo: Felix Gerlach (Fojab & Snøhetta are exterior architects)
Lund University’s face to the world
The 35,000 square meter large building houses wet and dry laboratory environments with linear accelerators and storage rings, a larger number of offices as well as representative spaces as conference facilities, auditoriums, refectory, café and lounge.
In the facility, research takes place using so called synchrotron radiation, a very strong X-ray light that makes it possible to study material structures down to the atomic level. MAX IV will be the next generation synchrotron radiation laboratory and a giant investment for Lund university, not least for the purpose of attracting these international scientists.
Photo: Felix Gerlach
Photo: Felix Gerlach
Photo: Felix Gerlach
Photo: Felix Gerlach
Photo: Felix Gerlach
Photo: Felix Gerlach
“We have a solid experience and expertise when it comes to creating customized working environments. In this project, function has been extremely important. The equipment is very expensive and requires rational and thoughtful solutions that offer as much flexibility as possible,” says Patrik Haglund. Patrik is Studio Manager of Interior Design at Tengbom in Malmö.
Photo: Felix Gerlach
An good working environment as focus
We are deeply committed to designing a functional and representative working environment for everyone at the lab, especially the researchers. This exciting challenge demands great precision to ensure that all equipment functions seamlessly. We have customized the surfaces to support particle cleaning, carried out by specially trained personnel.
