The Leading News & Information Service For The Facilities, Workplace & Built Environment Community

Extra Fast Construction In Wood You Believe It?

The all wood The Pro Nemus visitor centre in Finland.
19 July 2018
 

Metsä Group’s new visitor centre in Äänekoski, in Central Finland, is a prime example of fast construction using wood.

The 1,000sq.m building showcases how Metsä Wood’s Kerto LVL products enable fast, light and green construction. The building combines industrially manufactured wooden elements and architectural solutions with detailed carpentry.

The wooden column and beam frame of the building and its prefabricated wall, floor and roof elements are made from Kerto LVL (laminated veneer lumber) products. In the building, the wooden materials and many construction engineering details have been left visible as part of the exhibition.

Metsä Wood’s wood products have also been used in various ways in the visitor centre’s interior design and visual solutions.

 

Prefabs sprout

The wooden frame and elements for the Pro Nemus visitor centre were supplied by a Finnish company, VVR Wood. Metsä Wood’s Kerto LVL products where used for the frame system and also to produce the multiple-glued columns and beams.

Sweco Finland Oy was responsible for the structural engineering of the visitor centre.

All of the wooden element models used in the design of the centre had been used before in apartment and hall building projects.

 

Seven months

Pro Nemus was built in Äänekoski in just seven months. The tight schedule was the greatest challenge during the project, in which architectural details needed to be implemented with exceptional precision. Good planning and cooperation between the various parties played a major role in the implementation of the project.

“Construction using wooden elements is fast and efficient, and project management is easier when structures consisting of elements are increasingly completed at factories,” said Tero Vesanen, MD of VVR. “Metsä Wood’s Kerto LVL products were delivered to the element factory cut to our specification, meaning that assembling was highly efficient at our end.”

 

Wood faces

The wall elements and the special CNC machining of wood products for the building were completed by Punkaharjun Puutaito, a subcontractor of VVR.

The lower spaces on the ground floor have impressive suspended ceilings with Kerto LVL S-beams. Tthe entrance lobby has coat rack fixtures made from birch and spruce plywood. The wall surfaces with translucent black surface treatment are made from spruce plywood.

 

Bogs from logs

The cubicle walls and sink furniture in the toilet facilities are made from Kerto LVL.

The stairway walls have birch plywood panelling, with CNC-machined patterns that improve the acoustics.

 

A building like the forest itself

“This building combines industrial wood construction with a high level of detailed carpentry. This is just what is best about building with wood: the material itself creates opportunities for many types of processing, which are easy to implement,” said Ulla Passoja from UKI Architects, the project architect.

"The Pro Nemus visitor centre is a completely new kind of forest experience. By building an exhibition space that combines pure nature with virtual reality and experiences in conjunction with the new bioproduct mill, Metsä Group wants to lead the way and establish itself as a strong forerunner of the bioeconomy."

Picture: The all wood The Pro Nemus visitor centre in Finland.

Article written by Cathryn Ellis | Published 19 July 2018

Share



Related Articles

First Carbon Free Steel Recycling Plant to be Built in Finland

A new steel recycling plant that will operate 100 per cent carbon free is to open in 2025. Using new pre-treatment and material analysis technology, the plant is to...

 Read Full Article
Finland’s Nokia Arena Reveals Touchless Security Technology

Europe’s newest multi-purpose arena, Nokia Arena, demonstrates some of the most modern access management technology. In the arena, doors are opened touchlessly...

 Read Full Article
Twinview to Implement Digital Twins Across Nordic Region

Twinview and Nordic BIM Group have announced a strategic partnership to implement digital twins across the property sector in Sweden, Finland and Norway. This will...

 Read Full Article
Neste Using Wind Power At Its Production Sites

The Neste Corporation has committed to lowering its carbon footprint in production ahead of the EU’s climate and energy targets. The global company has reached a...

 Read Full Article
Bytes And Mortar - A Digital And Off-site Construction Revolution

An ambitious new partnership between the government and the construction industry has been revealed. With almost half of the economy reliant on the built environment...

 Read Full Article
Major Fund Launched To Boost Construction Skills

A multi-million pound fund to help tackle the construction skills shortage has been launched. With 158,000 new construction jobs expected to be created in the UK over...

 Read Full Article
Leeds Lessens Learning Load

The Portakabin Group has expanded a PFI primary school in Leeds to provide more than 200 additional places, helping to meet the increasing demand for primary education in...

 Read Full Article
Speedy Returns for Going Dutch

Finnish based Wi-Fi hotspot provider Uros has added the Netherlands to its Goodspeed mobile internet service coverage. The move brings the total number of roaming-free...

 Read Full Article