INSIGHTS
timber office building – a stunning glass and timber showpiece. Mason concluded by saying that the “advantages of the material are known; it is now a question of how to design and plan using it, and doing the feasibility.”
Finnish quality
Nordic countries have seen strong innovation in modular timber across a range of building typologies. Finnish architectural practice OOPEAA designed the Puukuokka social housing building in the west of the country as Finland’s tallest residential timber construc- tion, thanks to the qualities of CLT. The larch and spruce-clad scheme for housing association Lakea won the Finlandia architec- tural award in 2015, and has been shortlisted for this year’s Mies van der Rohe Award. Each apartment is composed of two modules, one housing the living room, balcony and bedroom, the other – the bath- room, kitchen and foyer, and thanks to the Stora Enso CLT modules being the primary structure, no columns are needed. OOPEAA’s Anssi Lassila is firmly wedded to using CLT and LVL timber in a wide range of sectors, particularly with acoustics stan- dards being tighter in Finland compared to the UK as well as sustainability being a key requirement for many projects. He told attendees at Stora Enso’s launch event: “It works as a construction material not just as decoration. But it helps create a better atmos- phere that feels like home. “It’s natural but it’s also about the fact these apartments need to last for 35 years and there are problems with concrete and steel.”
Storage of CO2 is also a big factor with choosing wood, he said: “About 60 per cent of the CO2 emissions in a building are in the construction phase and 40 per cent over its life. And in a concrete
building the material accounts for about 20 per cent of the CO2 emissions.”
Lassila also emphasised the benefits of modular and volumetric construction as a way of quickly alleviating housing shortages: “The modular process is very short – it took only six months to build 70 apartments at Puukuokka, and it is faster to take down than any other building solution” he said. “This means it is possible to trans- port these buildings and reinstall them in a different location in the future if they are no longer needed for their present use.” He also alluded to some of the key requirements for constructing with CLT to optimise its benefits, such as having “separate wet and dry elements.” He explained that the project’s energy efficiency is benefitted as the separation that the timber modular elements provide means “a hallway can be colder without making the apartments cold – differ- ent temperatures can be maintained.”
Lassila said that while the acoustic qualities of the material in use at Puukuokka had been borne out, with some “very good feedback from residents,” the possibility exists to develop “even more flexible and diverse modular systems in the future.” Concluding, he said “Now is the time for timber.”
Swan dives into CLT
It is not just happening in enlightened pockets of the world however. The UK is beginning to catch on more widely, for example social housing provider Swan Homes has taken up the gauntlet and decided to build its own CLT factory to produce family houses in Basildon, Essex. Paul Williamson, managing director of modular construction at Swan Homes, spoke at Stora Enso’s event at the end of last year, hinting that the organisation has ambitions to go higher. He told attendees: “We started looking at modular construction in 2014 to help us meet growing demand for homes in the south east
The modular process is very short – it took only six months to build 70 apartments at Puukuokka
Anssi Lassila, architect, OOPEAA
and decided on volumetric CLT because we wanted a system that could deliver homes from one storey all the way up to 12 storeys.” Williamson added: “With CLT we can, relatively easily, produce thermally and acoustically efficient homes. Also, the fact the mate- rial is sustainable and able to be recycled is key to our sustainability agenda. He said that with Brexit “likely to make labour shortages worse, certainly in London,” the ability to produce homes in a factory was even more important. He admitted that CLT “does have constraints, like other materi-
als, you just don’t think about it with them as we’ve been using them from day one.” He concluded: “One of the major benefits for us is that CLT is easily machinable and that allows us a great deal of flexibility in the manufacturing process. We were always keen not to have the tail wag the dog, we want an architectural solution that has an engineering solution worked around it.” There may remain a number of cultural challenges to address before CLT timber buildings are widely accepted in the UK, partic- ularly for medium-rise developments, but major forces are mobilising to increase its presence in the market. While QS’ may still be reluctant to exchange steel and concrete for timber, when the cost benefits in the construction phrase – alongside the quality benefits – become more widely demonstrated they will have to sit up and pay attention.
FACTFILE: PUUKUOKKA, FINLAND
Location: Jyväskylä Architect: OOPEAA Number of storeys: Eight
Load bearing structure and frame: Prefabricated volumetric CLT modules Floor area: 14,000 m2
(70 apartments) Completed: 2015 (six month construction period) BENEFITS OF MODULAR OFFSITE
Reduce waste by up to 90 per cent Consistent quality Weather delays minimised
Protection against labour shortages and cost variations
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