Finnforest's Aurinkorinne wins Wood Award for 2004

 

Finnforest Corporation, Skanska and the City of Espoo were the joint recipients of this year's Wood Award for the Aurinkorinne building project in the Friisilä district of Espoo.

Puuinformaatio ry, an association that promotes the use of timber, annually awards a project, which represents the highest quality in wood architecture, utilises timber in its interior design in an exemplary fashion or makes significant advances in wood-building techniques. The award was launched in 1994 and  the period since then has seen enormous developments in Finnish wood-building techniques and an expansion of their application to new areas. The list of earlier recipients gives some indication of the diverse ways in which wood is used today: the Metsola primary school in Helsinki, the main building of the Kylmäluoma camping grounds in Taivalkoski, wooden multi-storey houses in the Viikki district of north Helsinki, the Vihantasalmi wooden bridge in Mäntyharju, the Sibelius Hall in Lahti, the Kierikki Stone Age Centre in Yli-Ii and the Puu-Linnanmaa residential area in Oulu.

Ten building locations were short-listed for the 2004 Wood Award. They represented a diverse selection of new Finnish wood architecture and innovative construction techniques. Due to the variety, the jury decided to make an exception and this year gave the award to two projects. The other winner is the Laajasalo Church in east Helsinki. The two represent totally different building sectors: public, sacral architecture and modern residential design.

The jury's permanent members are Puuinformaatio Managing Director, Architect SAFA Mikko Viljakainen, Pertti Hämäläinen, M.Sc., from Wood Focus Oy and Architect SAFA Pekka Heikkinen. Architect SAFA Jussi Vepsäläinen is the jury's secretary. Architect Hermann Kaufmann, who is the Professor of wood architecture at the Technical University of Munich, was a visiting member of the jury. 

The firm of architects Juha Kronlöf & Pauliina Vihinen designed the Aurinkorinne project. It is a modern, urban area of small residential houses. In addition to wooden structural elements, the houses utilise highly-processed wood-based materials in both their interiors and in exterior cladding. There are 24 houses in the development and their floor areas range from 115 to 146 square metres. The construction mode was industrial in nature. 

Urban areas of small-scale houses are a new concept in Finland and the Friisilä project, which was started in 2001 and completed last spring, was a pioneering venture. Moving from multi-storey buildings to small-scale area developments is a major challenge for construction companies and an excellent opportunity for the wood products industry. Success requires that large corporations and small and medium enterprises in the wood products sector form effective networks.

Finnforest implemented the project in cooperation with the City of Espoo and Skanska. The venture was also guided by a development group, which comprised representatives of the Helsinki University of Technology, the National Technology Agency of Finland and the Technical Research Centre of Finland, among others. The project indicated that the selected cooperative approach was correct and that it is possible to significantly increase the turnover generated from wood by shifting to the supply of component products, which incorporate design, logistics and installation services into products. The projections about the future prospects for the building sector made at the time of the launch of the project have proved on the mark. The construction of small-scale houses is increasing rapidly and wood products have a strong share of that market.

Additional information: Finnforest Corporation, Construction Director Lauri Palojärvi, tel. +358 500 507 447