Offsite manufacturer VVR Wood benefits from the partnership with Metsä Wood

​Tero Vesanen from Finnish wood element manufacturer VVR Wood praises Metsä Wood’s dedication to sharing expertise in developing offsite construction together. 

Kerto LVL-based elements bring many benefits to offsite construction – light structures reduce transport costs and are fast to install, which reduces building time. Wooden elements also provide a fast route to greener construction.

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 City competition results offer solutions to improve both sustainability and efficiency

Harmet, Estonian offsite construction company, produces wooden modular houses and worksite facilities. The use of Metsä Wood’s Kerto® LVL (laminated veneer lumber) products enables the fast, light and green construction of wooden modules.

Open Source Wood hackathon goes online – virtual innovation event organised by Metsä Wood and FCBA

The 8th Open Source Wood hackathon was the first one to be organised virtually and taking place in several locations at the same time. The hackathon challenged the participating engineering and architecture students from France and Switzerland as well as students and research scientists from Canada to innovate ways to reuse wood.

The challenge inspired participants to design wooden elements for various kinds of buildings. Some teams focused on rebuilding a damaged building with new wooden modules, and others wanted to erect new buildings with wooden building systems, which can easily be disassembled and reconstructed.  

The winning team presented a multi-storey building concept named “ModulaR3” utilising a modular post and beam system. The main innovation is its connector system for easily removable external walls.