Holmängenskolan is now being constructed – entirely of wood

The Municipality of Vänersborg and Serneke Sverige AB are collaborating strategically to meet the increased need for educational facilities within the Municipality. Holmängenskolan is the largest of the schools within the agreement. The future F-6 school at Holmängen in Vänersborg is being constructed with a frame made entirely of wood and is being prepared for certification in accordance with the environmental classification system Miljöbyggnad 3.1, level silver. The school houses preschool and school premises for 525 students, as well as a sports hall for school and association activities.

Since the summer of 2021, the municipalities of Serneke and Vänersborg have worked together on the design of Holmängenskolan’s internal and external environments and systems. The goal is to create a school with optimum conditions for long-term functioning operations, high extensibility and efficient management.

“The Municipality of Vänersborg has been clear with its objective of achieving a real wooden building, so it has been important for the project group not to apply any hybrid solutions, as is often the case in other so-called wooden buildings. We have gone for wood ‘all in’, identifying functional and sustainable solutions,” says Christoffer Sundin, Project Manager for Holmängenskolan at Serneke.

A solar cell system with an output of 250,000 kWh will be installed on the roofs of the school buildings, corresponding to the school’s entire annual consumption and, in principle, making it self-sufficient. The concept of sustainability has been an important focus throughout the planning stage, and nature has also been allowed to move in, including into the indoor environments.

“In the project, we have worked hard for students and staff to truly experience spending their time in a wooden building, and have, for that reason, left the wood properly visible inside the building. All visible stairs and many walls have exposed, solid wood surfaces. We supplemented walls with strict fire and/or acoustic requirements with board materials and sound-absorbing slatted wooden panels,” says Thomas Johnsson, Project Manager for the Municipality.

Construction will commence in March 2022. The school is scheduled for completion in May 2024, with operations commencing by the autumn term of 2024. The order value of approximately SEK 260 million is included in order bookings for the first quarter of 2022.

*Holmängenskolan is the project’s working name and not necessarily the name of the future school.