Hybrid sandwich wall element – sustainable and efficient construction

Hybrid construction offers construction companies more sustainable way of building without changing the current way of construction. Metsä Wood and its partners have designed a hybrid sandwich wall element which will renew offsite construction. The innovation combines concrete with Kerto® LVL (laminated veneer lumber). The first construction project to use the elements is Metsä Fibre’s Rauma sawmill.

Modular Pattern Buildings – a modular system that helps to build wooden constructions from family houses to public buildings

A wooden Metsä Pavilion in Tokyo

​Metsä Group and Business Finland joined forces in building a wooden Metsä pavilion on the grounds of the Finnish Embassy in the centre of Tokyo, Japan.. The Pavilion will be used as a venue for different Embassy meetings and Business Finland events. It will also host the Finnish national team during the 2021 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

This pavilion is an example of innovative architecture based on industrially manufactured wooden elements. The building was made entirely from Metsä Wood’s Kerto® LVL (laminated veneer lumber) elements. The pavilion has been designed by world-renowned Finnish architect Pekka Helin from Helin & Co Architects.

The raw material for the pavilion comes from sustainably grown Finnish forests, owned by Jukka Heikkonen. 

Project Manager Lasse Hietanen, from Finnish AINS Group, is responsible for the structural design of the Metsä Pavilion. The main goal was to create this unique building using as few parts as possible, making the production of Kerto LVL as efficient as possible.

The elements used in Metsä Wood and Business Finland’s Metsä Pavilion were produced at the Timberpoint factory in Loviisa, Finland. CEO and co-founder of Timberpoint Marko Suonpää  highlights that tight-knit collaboration between several professionals made the pavilion come to life.

The low weight of Kerto LVL elements was an advantage in the transport, and the lightness also made onsite handling easy. “The elements could be quickly put together on site,” says Jyrki Huttunen, CEO of Puurakentajat Oy, the company responsible for the erection of the Pavilion in Tokyo. On site, Japanese architect Atsushi Ueda was monitoring the construction and Ueda’s team also installed windows and finished up the interior and the visible surfaces of the Pavilion.

Open Source Wood gathers structural calculation tools in one place

Open Source Wood offers innovation, ideas and a library of element and module designs, freely available to everyone. Now, Open Source Wood also offers easy access to structural calculation tools.

Hybrid construction would enable a lighter and more sustainable skyscraper

Hybrid City Challenge, organised by Metsä Wood in 2020, called for hybrid solutions to make construction more sustainable while maintaining efficiency using current building methods. The first prize was won by a design called “WHAT IF… New York’s SEAGRAM Building was a HYBRID building” by architect Jose Gustavo Garzon. Combining Metsä Wood’s Kerto^® LVL (laminated veneer lumber) with steel and concrete structures resulted a lighter and more sustainable skyscraper.

Hybrid system has a great potential for high-rise buildings in the future. Seagram Building -design presents a hybrid system with a core made of concrete and steel. When moving outwards and upwards, the frame gradually blends into a wooden frame.