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.
