Thorbjörn Andersson: Umeå University is a young university, founded in the late 1960s. Here, ca 35 000 students from all over the world study in all fields of knowledge. Umeå University is located by the coast, approximately 300 km south of the Polar Circle.

A campus park should supply with a variety of designated places with the capacity to host informal discussions and exchange of ideas. It is in the open, non-hierarchical spaces, rather than in lecture auditoriums or at laboratory microscopes that the truly creative interaction between students, researchers and teachers occurs. The quality of the campus park thus enhances the attractiveness of the university as a whole.

The new Campus Park at Umeå University consists of 23 000 sqm sun decks, jetties, open lawns, walking trails and terraces organized around an artificial lake. An island in the lake is the point of departure for a small archipelago with bridges leading to the southern shore. Here, the visitor meets a hilly landscape with sunny as well as shaded vales, interspersed by the white trunks of birch trees.