Work begins indoors on Finland's largest wooden multi storey apartment building project
Metsä Wood Press Release 29 March 2012
Work on a wooden apartment building block based on the Metsä Wood Multi-Storey System has progressed to the indoor work stage in Viikki, Helsinki, as planned. This is the largest wooden apartment building project in Finland. The project has progressed as planned, and it comprises 6,300 floor square metres and 104 apartments. The frames of the five Kerto® -based apartment buildings were completed in three months. Kerto beam and post frame intermediate floors, roofs and external walls, all included in Metsä Wood's contract, were installed in January. The balcony structures are currently being finished.
Frame installation of the buildings commenced in late October. By taking autumn rain and the Christmas holiday season into account, the buildings reached the roof covering stage in about two weeks, and the building frames were insulated and heat could be switched on approximately two weeks later. The Metsä Wood Multi-Storey System promotes cost-effective apartment building construction because it substantially accelerates the construction schedule, reduces site work and minimises the amount of material loss.
”In addition to eco-efficiency, fast construction is a vital competitive edge. Because the walls of the Multi-Storey System are not load-bearing structures, the facilities can be flexibly modified retroactively, and repair is also easy," says Timo Karinen, Group Executive Vice President of Metsä Wood.
The legislation and regulations were amended last year, which was favourable for wood-based construction. The Viikki project shows that wood-based construction is a good alternative for industrial apartment building construction.
"Our goal is to have long-term profitable operations where the Metsä Wood Multi-Storey System can be applied not only to apartment production, but also to office and business premises construction with flexibility for changes," says Karinen.
All wooden building parts and the foundations' concrete elements, as well as the HPAC and automatic extinguishing systems of the wooden apartment buildings were designed through 3D modelling. Its advantages include more effective design and faster changes. The building has an automatic extinguishing system which is a superior fire safety advantage in comparison to the traditional building method because in case of fire, the spreading of the fire will be prevented, the temperature will not increase and the oxygen concentration of the rooms will not decrease.
The project is part of the Developing Multi-storey Building programme of the City of Helsinki, with pension insurance company Etera as the building developer and Peab as the main contractor. Construction in Viikki was launched by laying the foundations in summer 2011. The apartments will be finished in summer 2012.
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For more information, please contact:
Timo Karinen, Group Executive Vice President, Metsä Wood, tel. +358 (0)10 465 4173
Olga van Iterson, Marketing and Communications Manager, Metsä Wood, tel. +358 (0)50 325 2376
www.metsagroup.com
Metsä Group is a responsible forest industry group whose products are part of people’s everyday life and promote sustainable well-being. Metsä Group produces high-quality products mainly from renewable Nordic wood. The Group’s core businesses areas are tissue and cooking papers, board and paper, pulp, wood products as well as wood supply. Metsä Group’s sales totalled EUR 5.3 billion in 2011, and it employs approximately 12,500 people. The Group operates in some 30 countries.
www.metsawood.com
Metsä Wood offers competitive and eco-efficient wood-based solutions for industrial construction customers, other industrial customers and the home and lifestyle sectors. We manufacture products from Nordic wood, a sustainable raw material of premium quality. Our sales were EUR 940 million in 2011, and we employ about 2,900 people. Metsä Wood is part of Metsä Group.