Creating a school of architecture for the future is a demanding challenge for an architectural practice. So, it doesn't do any harm to have two architectural practices involved The new School of Architecture at Umeå University is the result of close, equitable team work by two of Scandinavia's leading architectural practices, White from Sweden and Henning Larsen Architects from Denmark.

Together they have achieved an unusually inspirational work environment, in harmonious architecture that has a strong foundation in its location, function and times.

Norrland's School of Architecture is a proud, beautiful box filled with the prerequisites for a brighter future. The building has been designed to stand erect for at least a century and to tolerate being looked at and spoken about.

The School of Architecture at Umeå University is the first architectural training institution to start up in Sweden since 1964. After its first year in temporary premises, work is now going on in a new building that has been tailored to the school's activities and requirements.

The collaborative project undertaken by White and HLA started off with agreement on a shared box of building blocks, a square volume in which the experience of both practices has been expressed in terms of interpretive solutions and also the choice of materials. The building is unmistakably Nordic with its stark elegance and rustic durability. Its location just below the Arctic Circle is accentuated on the outside in an untreated timber façade which, on closer inspection, is a masterpiece that displays a precision fit.

Training at the new School of Architecture has an artistic base, with an active, intimate interplay between its creative neighbours and the surrounding community. A clear starting point here is its focus on the innermost core of the architect's profession: the desire to work towards a better world involving strongly aesthetic, ethical, political, social and environmental commitment.

The interior is the result of Swedish-Danish interplay – a striking openness and a robust environment, giving an almost industrial impression with the ceiling height and materials creating what its architects call a workshop for the architects of the future. The other basic structural concept is an open study environment in which everyone sits in the same room, despite level differences. Everything to promote the most important aspect of an architect's training, which is to learn more in close contact with other people.

The open design with the surprise of its atrium, therefore responds well to modern training courses in creative subjects. There are innumerable meeting places; the flow between the various departments is wide open; the interior light and the view of the river never disappoint.

The drafting rooms are arranged along the outer edges of the building, in a rhythmic module of columns and beams, all cohering in one continuous space. The structure is rational and simple, while the building's interior is also playful in its landscape of stairways and meeting rooms. Large boxes float in an abstract manner, in white with the light filtered down from hidden skylights. The contrast between the privacy of the drafting rooms and the rich dynamics of the centre is clear.

The school stimulates the students' professional development with the aid of project-based teaching and research, new strategies, materials and products. There are also ample resources for modelling work in a purpose-built workshop.