In the worlds of softwoods, panel products and engineered timber, Finnforest is already an everyday name. Never one to stand still, however, the company has similar ambitions in the construction market and, to demonstrate its prowess, has built the definitive shop window – Finnforest Modular Office (FMO), the tallest wooden office structure in Europe.
FMO Tapiola, in the city of Espoo, near Helsinki, officially opened last month and is partly leased to tenants, with 25% of the space being occupied by Finnforest Corporation. In constructing this swish new six-storey (one below ground) workspace, Finnforest has become the ultimate self-builder.
“In Finland around 60% of structures are wooden,” senior vice-president Lauri Palojärvi said. “Around half is residential and, of that, 70% is low storey.
“Finnforest built the FMO because we wanted to prove that wood is also competitive in medium-rise – three- to five-storey,” he continued.
“We wanted to demonstrate this through our own office building which would allow us to display the diversity of products, systems and solutions Finnforest is able to produce.” The motives were altruistic as well as commercial, however: “We also wanted to provide a better and more motivating environment for our staff – and the other tenants – to work in,” Mr Palojärvi added.
In addition, the FMO will house a Building Academy, along the same lines as the Timber Academy at Finnforest UK‘s Boston facility, which will educate and enlighten both its customers and its customers’ customers.
The design for the FMO was the result of an architects’ competition, won by Helin & Co Architects, and the building is Finnforest’s most ambitious project by far, both in terms of cubic metres – 50,000m3 with a gross area 13,000m2, and an office area of 8,000m2 – and hard cash – €25m excluding land, official levies and fees. And, like all timber frame constructions, building was very speedy.
Frame construction began in November 2004 and was finished in April this year. Building work wrapped up in July and Finnforest employees transferred from their existing head office a couple of hundred metres away in August. The building was inaugurated on September 5.
The building’s product specification certainly fulfils its remit of showcasing Finnforest products, with Kerto LVL playing a starring role. The Kerto frame and façade comprises 1,200 prefabricated components, installed on site. There are 500 load-bearing Kerto columns and beams and 6,000m2 of Kerto box slabs for intermediate floors.
The façade features 2,200m2 of split glulam beams from Finnforest’s Kuningaspalkki plant and 1,000m2 of ThermoWood sun-deflecting slats. Colorwood accounts for 550m2 of façade panel cladding and the 3,000m2 of suspended ceilings feature ThermoWood and Kerto.
Components came from across the board of Finnforest’s facilities. Plants at Lohja, Punkaharuju and Hartola supplied the Kerto and glulam and were involved with the assembly of the modular units.
The net result is a spacious, light-filled workspace, which literally exposes timber – and Finnforest products – at every turn. Building a house, or an office, in such a way is, said Lauri Palojärvi, “the best area of competence for the wood industry”.
It also, he said, reflects a new dynamic in construction. “We have reached the current levels of timber construction in Finland by traditional methods – it’s fast to deliver, quick to build and low cost; but the new factor pushing wood construction is the environment.
“All the world is realising that global warming is due to carbon emissions and one way to quickly decrease carbon is to tie it up in wood, both in forests and in buildings,” he continued.
“Every cubic metre of wood substituted for fossil fuel-intensive materials saves about two tonnes of CO2. If the current consumption of wood can be increased by 20%, then Finland will have fulfilled the Kyoto agreement,” he concluded.
