FMO Tapiola – winner of the 2006 Wood Award  

Finnforest’s FMO Tapiola office building is this year’s winner of Finland’s most prestigious wood architectural competition.

The annual award honours high-quality Finnish wood architecture or structures where wood has been used in a manner that promotes construction engineering. Finnforest Modular Office (FMO), a southern landmark in the ‘Garden City’ of Tapiola, meets both criteria - it is built of wooden modular elements and, due to its advanced design, is a pleasant and light environment in which to work.

FMO Tapiola incorporates several innovations and product applications developed by Metsäliitto Wood Products Industry (Finnforest). The five-storey building’s versatile use of wood has been combined with stone, glass and steel to add sophistication to its modern looks.

Lauri Palojärvi, who was Director for Building and Construction at Finnforest during the project, comments that “When building FMO Tapiola, our aim was to prove that prefabricated wood products can be a competitive solution when used in medium-height office buildings. We were right - wood proved to be competitive in terms of the building schedule, costs and environmental performance. FMO Tapiola is part of south Tapiola’s development project and was implemented in cooperation with the city of Espoo.”

Pekka Helin, the primary architect, is confident about the popularity of wood in modern projects: “A modern wooden office building shows how wood can meet today’s architectural demands for more ‘human’ and environmentally-friendly structures. Kerto LVL, used in the building’s frame and visible surfaces, represents wood’s novel possibilities in high-tech applications. I see a bright international future for such buildings as the wood renaissance continues. ”

The Wood Award is given annually by Puuinformaatio ry. The professional judging panel for this year’s award was: Professor Gunnel Adlercreutz; Director of Studies, Wood Program Helsinki University of Technology and Editor-in-Chief of PUU magazine Pekka Heikkinen; Matti Mikkola, Managing Director, KPM Engineering, and Petri Heino, Environmental Specialist, Finnish Forest Industries Federation. The panel was chaired by Mikko Viljakainen, Managing Director, Puuinformaatio ry. Jussi Vepsäläinen, Architect, was secretary. Puuinformaatio ry is an association that aims at enhancing building with wood, using wood products and promoting Finnish wood architecture.

The award was presented by Mauri Pekkarinen, Minister of Trade and Industry, on Friday, 29 September in Helsinki.

On 5 October FMO Tapiola received another major award. FMO Tapiola shared second place in the 2006 RIL Award. The RIL Award is one of the most prestigious building awards in Finland and is given annually by the Association of Finnish Civil Engineers.

FMO Tapiola – the forerunner of building with wood
- Five-stories (incl. foundations); floor space 13,300 m2
- Wood-based solutions (frame, façades, partition walls) and materials supplied by Metsäliitto Wood Products Industry (Finnforest)
- Wooden frame and façades constructed of prefabricated wooden parts; installed on-site
- Cladding elements made of split glulam beams and ThermoWood lattices
- Wooden intermediate floor elements made of Kerto box slabs
- Modular (easily modifiable) partition walls based on the Kerto frame
- FMO Tapiola has been given the excellent B rating of the PromisE environmental classification system developed by Motiva (Motiva Oy promotes energy efficiency and the uptake of renewable energy sources); RAKLI (Finnish Association of Building Owners and Construction Clients); Ministry of the Environment and TEKES (Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation)
- Building schedule: 15 months
- Address: Tuulikuja 2, Tapiola, Espoo, Finland
- Primary architect: Helin & Co Architects, Pekka Helin and Peter Verhe, Helsinki
- Structural designer: WSP SuunnitteluKORTES Oy, Jukka Ala-Ojala, Oulu
- Building services (HVAC) design: Air-Ix Suunnittelu, Tampere
- Building consultant: CM-Urakointi Oy, Helsinki
- Main Contractor: Peab Seicon Oy, Helsinki
- Owner: Tapiola Group, Espoo

For more information about FMO Tapiola:
Lauri Palojärvi,tel. +358 500 507 447
Johanna Kankkunen, Director, Central Marketing and Communications,
Metsäliitto Wood Products Industry (Finnforest), tel. +358 50 350 4005

For more information about the Finnish Wood Award:
Mikko Viljakainen, Managing Director, Puuinformaatio ry, tel. +358 9 6865 4513
Petri Heino, Campaign Manager, Wood Focus Oy, tel. 040 554 6431

Photo: Voitto Niemelä
Photo can be obtained from: http://www.pressi.com/fi/kuvat/
Additional photos from info@finnforest.com