Primary School for 600 students

Location: Vimmerby Municipality
Construction status: Not yet started
Budget: SEK 500 million
Primary building material: Timber
Environmental certification: Miljöbyggnad Silver

Background

In 2019, an investigation was initiated regarding the construction of a new primary school for approximately 600 students. The goal was to improve the school environment and fix some problems identified by the Swedish Work Environment Authority (Arbetsmiljöverket) at one of the existing schools. Both schools also lacked adequate facilities for home economics, group rooms, after-school care spaces, as well as music and crafts classrooms.

The investigation considered several alternatives:

1. Build a new lower secondary school and convert two existing schools into primary and intermediate schools.
2. Status quo – no action and keep the current situation.
3. Build a new lower secondary school, close the Astrid Lindgren School, and build a new primary and intermediate school.
4. Renovate the two existing schools and use temporary pavilion buildings.

After presentations to local politicians, a decision was made to initiate a prestudy based on Alternative 1, focusing on a new lower secondary school. During this process, the project team also evaluated the need for a new special education school, as the existing facility was too small and demand was increasing.

In 2021, the project moved into the programme phase. Much effort was made to involve various working groups, as well as children and young people, in the process. Inspections of the two existing schools were also carried out.

Due to an economic downturn, the project was unfortunately put on hold by political decision.

Challanges

As the responsible project manager, it was challenging to lead a project of this size on my own. The project included:

• Construction of a new lower secondary school for 600 students.
• Construction of a special education school for 30 students.
• Renovation and rebuilding of two existing primary schools.