NEWS On 30 September, three new residential buildings for foreign researchers and international students were inaugurated at Lasarettsbacken 5, by the Svingen cycle bridge in Umeå. There will be room for 167 apartments, divided into three houses, and an open outdoor area for socialising.
The inauguration took place in glorious autumn sunshine on the open common area between the buildings. Photo: Jakob Mjöbring
The apartments range from small studios to two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments. One of the buildings is a renovation and remodelling of an older office building, while two of the buildings are brand new. The apartments are for international students, postgraduate students, postdoctoral fellows, visiting researchers and researchers employed at Umeå University and are allocated via an internal queue system.
The three buildings have also had a completely new social area built between the houses to facilitate socialising and social activities. A new area for socialising has also been created down towards Svingen, where two crane foundations from the construction have been retained and a staircase has been built between them. The space has been named Hillevis trappa (Hillevi's Staircase) after the architect Hillevi Callander, who designed the office building that has now been transformed into a residential building and is something of an exclamation point in the urban environment above the Svingen cycle bridge.
"It is of course fantastic for Umeå University to have so many residences so close to the university's other buildings," said Hans Adolfsson, Vice-Chancellor of Umeå University, before cutting the ribbon with the help of Mikael Berglund, Chairman of Byggnadsnämnden, Umeå Municipality, and Jonas Olsson, CEO of Balticgruppen, which owns the buildings via the property company Gazette AB, in which VK Media is also a partner.
From the left: Jonas Olsson, CEO Balticgruppen, Hans Adolfsson, Vice Chancellor of Umeå University, and Mikael Berglund, chairman of Byggnadsnämnden at Umeå Municipality. Photo: Jakob Mjöbring
Moving in has already begun in many of the apartments and soon all three buildings will be filled with researchers and international students from all over the world.
Here is both the renovated 1950s building (left) and one of the two newly constructed buildings, which together offer 167 apartments for international students and researchers at Umeå University. Photo: Jakob Mjöbring