Finnforest Modular offices, Finland
This modular office building, built in Finland by Finnforest for the Tapiola Group, was detailed and modeled using advanced 3D modeling and planning techniques developed by Tekla. This unique 5-storey building, covering an area of 13,000 square metres, is the tallest wooden building in Europe. Made up of thousands of individually prefabricated and crafted wooden parts, it also incorporates a mesh of reinforcing steel wires and prefabricated concrete elements.
This modular office building, built for the Tapiola Group, is located in Espoo, a town near the Finnish capital, and is the tallest wooden building in Europe. Finnforest plc (Metsäliitto Group), Europe's largest wood products company, was entrusted with the construction of this 20 million euro project. The building was inaugurated in September 2005. The aim of the project was to demonstrate that a material as old as wood could be a competitive building material, and this was achieved with flying colors. The building's structural design was carried out using Tekla Structures software.
Wood: an attractive, competitive material
Completed in the summer of 2005, Europe's tallest timber office building represents a real tour de force in timber construction, and is attracting a great deal of attention. The building industry in general has followed the project closely, and it has also attracted a great deal of public interest. In addition to its ecological credentials, this modular solution offers a working environment that is close to nature, healthy and safe, yet modern. The project was initially based on a number of elements, including the unconventional use of wood, consideration of material properties in terms of life cycle and environmental impact, energy savings, the ambience inside the building, and the effects of lighting and acoustics. The project served as a pilot for a real estate development program set up by the Finnish Confederation of Building Industries to develop a building classification called "PromiseE", based on the evaluation of parameters such as energy savings and life cycle. This project not only gives an excellent idea of the degree of Finnish expertise in the field of wood products, but is also highly instructive as to the degree of competitiveness of wood for mid-rise structures. The concept on which the project is based makes it possible to use a system of modular structures to design customized office buildings with wooden structures, thus convincingly demonstrating the possibilities offered by wood, particularly as a material used for the construction of facades and the structural framework of a building.
