Hedqvist studied at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and worked for Ragnar Östberg before opening his own office in 1924, with his partner David Dahl. Hedqvist became part of the functionalist movement developing in Sweden after Stockholm International Exhibition (1930), which he took part in. Through the war, from 1938 through 1948, he was professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm.