a place to call
HOME
After two years of searching, we are delighted to share the news that we have found the site on which to make the next stage of this school a reality.
In December 2020, we will take ownership of two buildings and a patch of land in the town of Östervåla, thirty miles northwest of Uppsala. Built in 1912 for the town shoemaker, the property has been in the same family for three generations.
Now it is our turn to make this a pocket of hospitality: a school that starts from the conversations we bring together around our kitchen table, that welcomes guests from near and far, and that serves as a gathering point for those who are drawn to the work of regrowing a living culture.
The Yellow House
The ground floor of Åbyvägen 12 served as Lundqvist’s shoe shop until five years ago. The flat above the shop will be our family home.
The Shoe Shop
This will become the school’s first teaching room and a space where we can hold gatherings of many shapes and kinds.
The Red House
Built in 1924, this has served as living quarters, laundry and barn. With a bit of work, it will become a schoolhouse with accommodation and teaching space.
The Great Hall
In time, the upper floor of the Red House will become our school hall: a place for gatherings, talks, concerts and workshops. The antlers come with the property, as do many other reminders of the first three generations of its habitation. The early stages of our work here will involve a kind of archaeology.
In a moment when there is plenty of bad news in the wider world, there’s a sense of shyness at sharing our good news.
Yet there’s something more here: an act of faith that a time is coming when it will be easier to cross borders and gather around tables than it is just now. When that time comes, many kinds of gathering space will be needed, and our work is to make this one of them.
If you would like to learn more, we’re holding a free Zoom session on Thursday, 12 November at 20.15 CET: ‘An introduction to a school called HOME’ with Anna Björkman and Dougald Hine.
We also have places available for our four-week online series, ‘Homeward Bound: The Climate Sessions’ with guests including Martin Shaw, Vanessa Andreotti and Alastair McIntosh, which starts on Sunday, 15 November.