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Campus Tensta
Campus Tensta
Spånga-Tensta, Stockholm, Sweden
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Other Projects by Tengbom
Campus Tensta
Spånga-Tensta, Stockholm, Sweden
Firm
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2024
SIZE
10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft
BUDGET
Unknown
Campus Tensta transforms the former Tensta Upper Secondary School, a culturally significant 1980s building, into a contemporary multi-tenant educational campus through careful renovation and minimal intervention. Designed originally by Gösta Uddén, the building’s spatial openness, winter garden, robust material palette, and strong architectural identity have been preserved while adapting the complex to contemporary technical, environmental, and educational requirements. The project demonstrates how sensitive reuse can extend the life of important public architecture while reducing environmental impact and maintaining long-term cultural value.
The client, Hemsö, commissioned Tengbom to renovate and adapt the former Tensta Upper Secondary School into a flexible campus for multiple tenants. The key challenge was to accommodate contemporary educational and technical requirements while preserving a building classified as culturally significant under Sweden’s Planning and Building Act.
Originally designed by Gösta Uddén and completed between 1980–84, the building holds Blue Classification status from the Stockholm City Museum, , indicating that the building possesses exceptionally high cultural-historical value and that alterations had to be carried out with exceptional care. Spaces identified as “Rooms of Special Character” were preserved with minimal intervention, and close collaboration with conservation specialists guided the entire process.
The project strategy focused on “careful transformation,” maintaining the original architectural logic, sightlines, openness, and material palette. Existing entrances and external circulation balconies made subdivision into multiple tenants possible with only limited physical interventions. New work included updated technical systems, ventilation, fire-rated glazing, accessibility adaptations, tenant functions, and acoustic and lighting upgrades and improve the working environment for students in the classrooms (also a legal requirement).
The renovation preserved and reused original materials wherever possible, including exposed concrete, brick, pine, terracotta tiles, cork flooring, and steel-and-glass partitions. All specified products comply with the Swedish SundaHus environmental assessment system.
The project demonstrates innovation through restraint rather than radical transformation. Instead of redefining the building with a new architectural language, the design team developed a methodology for adapting a highly protected heritage building to contemporary demands while preserving its original spatial and architectural qualities.
A central challenge was converting a single-user school building into a flexible multi-tenant campus without compromising openness, sightlines, or the identity of the original architecture. The building’s existing structure and circulation system, particularly its multiple entrances and external balconies, were strategically reused to support subdivision with minimal intervention.
Another major challenge involved integrating modern technical systems, especially increased ventilation requirements, into a heritage listed environment. Extensive detailing and custom designed solutions allowed new systems to remain visually discreet, ensuring that additions support rather than dominate the original architecture.
The project also re-evaluates 1980s architecture as a valuable cultural resource rather than an outdated typology. By embracing the building’s original materials, proportions, and environmental strategies instead of replacing them, the renovation demonstrates how long-term architectural quality can remain adaptable across generations. Campus Tensta proposes an alternative approach to renovation, one based on continuity, reuse, and architectural endurance.
Campus Tensta contributes socially, culturally, and environmentally by extending the life of an important public building while adapting it for contemporary educational use. The project preserves a culturally significant part of Stockholm’s suburban history and maintains a generous, open architectural environment designed to encourage interaction, visibility, and accessibility. The client also has strong social ambitions to help create a safer and more inclusive environment in an area that has historically faced social challenges.
The building’s original spatial principles — openness, daylight, visual connectivity, and multiple routes through the building — already supported inclusive use and accessibility. These qualities were retained and strengthened through the renovation. The subdivision into several tenants also increases long-term usability and resilience, ensuring the building can continue serving diverse educational and community functions over time.
From a sustainability perspective, the project prioritised reuse over replacement. Existing structures, façades, windows, interior surfaces, and materials were preserved wherever possible, significantly reducing embodied carbon associated with demolition and new construction. The original passive environmental design strategies, including deep roof overhangs and external walkways that provide natural solar shading, allowed the existing glazing to remain in place without replacement.
The project does not hold a formal climate certification, but all specified products comply with the Swedish SundaHus system. The renovation demonstrates how careful adaptive reuse and long-term architectural durability can form a highly sustainable alternative to demolition and reconstruction.
Campus Tensta
ARCHITECT: Tengbom
Project Team: Josefin Larsson, Karolina Lorentzi, Therese Gradin, Charles Davis, Jesús Azpeitia, Banafsheh Nejad, Kicki Claesson, Pontus Eriksson, Stefan Lara Torres, Ali Mehrvash, Tamara Ismail, Magnus Stenmark, Peter Lindskog Svensson, Amalia Fors, Caroline Wetterling, Evdokia Karamitzia, Julia Eliasson, Linnéa Olmarken, Mårten Tovle, Simon Runsten, Veronica Skeppe och Weizhou Peng.
Lead Architect: Josefin Larsson
Original Architect (1980–84): Gösta Uddén, Uddén Arkitektkontor
Client: Hemsö
Project Location and Address: Hagstråket 11, 163 63 Spånga, Stockholm
Area: Approximately 15,000 sqm
Photographer: Felix Gerlach
Completed: 2024
The client, Hemsö, commissioned Tengbom to renovate and adapt the former Tensta Upper Secondary School into a flexible campus for multiple tenants. The key challenge was to accommodate contemporary educational and technical requirements while preserving a building classified as culturally significant under Sweden’s Planning and Building Act.
Originally designed by Gösta Uddén and completed between 1980–84, the building holds Blue Classification status from the Stockholm City Museum, , indicating that the building possesses exceptionally high cultural-historical value and that alterations had to be carried out with exceptional care. Spaces identified as “Rooms of Special Character” were preserved with minimal intervention, and close collaboration with conservation specialists guided the entire process.
The project strategy focused on “careful transformation,” maintaining the original architectural logic, sightlines, openness, and material palette. Existing entrances and external circulation balconies made subdivision into multiple tenants possible with only limited physical interventions. New work included updated technical systems, ventilation, fire-rated glazing, accessibility adaptations, tenant functions, and acoustic and lighting upgrades and improve the working environment for students in the classrooms (also a legal requirement).
The renovation preserved and reused original materials wherever possible, including exposed concrete, brick, pine, terracotta tiles, cork flooring, and steel-and-glass partitions. All specified products comply with the Swedish SundaHus environmental assessment system.
The project demonstrates innovation through restraint rather than radical transformation. Instead of redefining the building with a new architectural language, the design team developed a methodology for adapting a highly protected heritage building to contemporary demands while preserving its original spatial and architectural qualities.
A central challenge was converting a single-user school building into a flexible multi-tenant campus without compromising openness, sightlines, or the identity of the original architecture. The building’s existing structure and circulation system, particularly its multiple entrances and external balconies, were strategically reused to support subdivision with minimal intervention.
Another major challenge involved integrating modern technical systems, especially increased ventilation requirements, into a heritage listed environment. Extensive detailing and custom designed solutions allowed new systems to remain visually discreet, ensuring that additions support rather than dominate the original architecture.
The project also re-evaluates 1980s architecture as a valuable cultural resource rather than an outdated typology. By embracing the building’s original materials, proportions, and environmental strategies instead of replacing them, the renovation demonstrates how long-term architectural quality can remain adaptable across generations. Campus Tensta proposes an alternative approach to renovation, one based on continuity, reuse, and architectural endurance.
Campus Tensta contributes socially, culturally, and environmentally by extending the life of an important public building while adapting it for contemporary educational use. The project preserves a culturally significant part of Stockholm’s suburban history and maintains a generous, open architectural environment designed to encourage interaction, visibility, and accessibility. The client also has strong social ambitions to help create a safer and more inclusive environment in an area that has historically faced social challenges.
The building’s original spatial principles — openness, daylight, visual connectivity, and multiple routes through the building — already supported inclusive use and accessibility. These qualities were retained and strengthened through the renovation. The subdivision into several tenants also increases long-term usability and resilience, ensuring the building can continue serving diverse educational and community functions over time.
From a sustainability perspective, the project prioritised reuse over replacement. Existing structures, façades, windows, interior surfaces, and materials were preserved wherever possible, significantly reducing embodied carbon associated with demolition and new construction. The original passive environmental design strategies, including deep roof overhangs and external walkways that provide natural solar shading, allowed the existing glazing to remain in place without replacement.
The project does not hold a formal climate certification, but all specified products comply with the Swedish SundaHus system. The renovation demonstrates how careful adaptive reuse and long-term architectural durability can form a highly sustainable alternative to demolition and reconstruction.
Campus Tensta
ARCHITECT: Tengbom
Project Team: Josefin Larsson, Karolina Lorentzi, Therese Gradin, Charles Davis, Jesús Azpeitia, Banafsheh Nejad, Kicki Claesson, Pontus Eriksson, Stefan Lara Torres, Ali Mehrvash, Tamara Ismail, Magnus Stenmark, Peter Lindskog Svensson, Amalia Fors, Caroline Wetterling, Evdokia Karamitzia, Julia Eliasson, Linnéa Olmarken, Mårten Tovle, Simon Runsten, Veronica Skeppe och Weizhou Peng.
Lead Architect: Josefin Larsson
Original Architect (1980–84): Gösta Uddén, Uddén Arkitektkontor
Client: Hemsö
Project Location and Address: Hagstråket 11, 163 63 Spånga, Stockholm
Area: Approximately 15,000 sqm
Photographer: Felix Gerlach
Completed: 2024
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