In this study I examine the debates, intentions and ideas concerning the physical and created schoolroom as they appeared in the journal Lärarnas Tidning - Svensk Skoltidning (Teachers Journal – Swedish School journal) during the period 1962-1974. The built and created school building and its environment has been a relatively neglected topic in Swedish pedagogical research.

When the Swedish comprehensive system transformed during the sixties, with new curricula and a common nine year school, many school professionals realised the need for a new and pedagogically adjusted schoolhouse.

The early seventies marked a decline after a ten year period with an extensive building program affecting large parts of Sweden, and where schoolhouses had been an important part. The debate concerning the new Swedish school building was sometimes inspired and refreshing, but resistance and bitterness was also expressed. In part, this should be seen against the backdrop of the introduction of a new educational system, using new and sometimes untested pedagogical ideas, together with the fast transformation of the Swedish society.

The research method is an exploratory textual analysis focused on five different issues: ideas concerning community centres and integration, participatory and democratic issues about the built environment, the school building as a pedagogical tool, aesthetic considerations, and the working environment. Key worlds in the theoretical part are; democratical influences, community centres and integration ideas, arguments concerning the aesthetical work out, and the work environment.