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.
This approach covers all aspects of construction, right down to the layout of interior spaces, which can be split up and adapted thanks to a flexible system of partitions and acoustic structures. Finnforest's modular office building meets the sector's increasingly demanding requirements in terms of life cycles and energy savings. Moreover, wood is the world's only renewable building material.
A project combining wood and 3D modeling
The building was designed by Helin & Co Architects, whose Sydänpuu (Heart of Wood) solution won the architectural competition for the project. WSP ConsultingKORTES Ltd carried out the structural calculations for the building, whose construction was entrusted to PEAB Seicon. Facades and floors are made from Finnforest components, including glulam panels, ThermoWood® heat-treated wood cladding and Kerto stress-coated panels.
The entire project was documented from start to finish, providing a wealth of information for future projects. The challenge is not so much how to build an office building from wood, but how to create a functional entity from different elements that need to be given form. Implementing wood-based solutions that also incorporate concrete and steel elements requires specific expertise. Since there was no technological basis for a wood project of this scale, it was a learning experience for all parties involved. A large number of subcontractors were involved, and the coordination effort was enormous.
However, the use of Tekla Structures software for building detailing and modeling made things a little easier. In a project of this type, 3D modeling required a great deal of development work in order to effectively model the new types of timber elements and their connection points. This modeling work was carried out by engineers from two different offices at WSP Kortes, and they particularly appreciated the multi-user function of the Tekla Structures software. They were able to make effective use of Tekla's advanced 3D building modeling solution, which is a project management solution that enables any building, whatever its size, materials or complexity, to be modeled in detail down to the last bolt.
In addition to its comprehensive virtual modeling capabilities, Tekla's solution relies on interdisciplinary commitment and collaboration, as well as interoperability with related applications such as architectural, analysis and design software. These are just some of the factors that can contribute to the success of even the most challenging projects, such as this wooden office building built by Finnforest for the Tapiola Group. Structural data need only be entered once, after which the software enables the efficient use of custom elements, checks for collisions and manages modifications, while allowing all parties involved in the project to share all necessary information in the form of a fully representative 3D model.
Higher-quality buildings with Tekla Structures software
The structural design of the building constructed for the Tapiola Group was the first wood project to be 3D modeled by WSP Kortes. The design project, carried out using Tekla Sructures software, was launched towards the end of 2003.
" We had already been using Tekla Structures software for several years to model all our steel structures, and were also increasingly using it to model our concrete structures. This was the first time we had used it for a timber construction project," says Ville Jaatinen, the project engineer in charge of the building design project. According to Ville Jaatinen, designing complex timber structures was no problem at all. 3D modeling was also used without problems to produce drawings of parts and assemblies, dxf drawings and a considerable number of reports to improve production.
"I believe that 3D modeling has enabled us to greatly reduce the number of errors and improve the quality of the building compared to what it would have been had we chosen to use traditional 2D design software. Even though we sometimes encountered real difficulties in the design of certain highly complex structures and details, I've never had a single problem reported to me on site, " says Ville Jaatinen.
New functionalities fully exploited
Ville Jaatinen believes that, compared with other traditional building materials, wood occupies a special place. For the design project, he introduced a change of perspective that was first verified in the quotation.
"This is something that became clear to us with certain structures such as glulam, which can be considered both as a single object and as several objects. For example, we ended up defining two types of perforation for the parts used to make the joints, namely perforations with a tolerance of one millimeter for steel parts and zero tolerance for wood parts," says Ville Jaatinen.
A great deal of thought was given to the best way of visualizing the various entities and sub-entities. Extensive use was made of the latest Tekla Structures software features, such as the drawing binder and print wizard. " Tenons and mortises, for example, were modeled as correctly dimensioned materials, and the associated texts were imported into the assembly drawings according to the materials used and their lengths. In addition, the wizard was used to import a large number of neighboring parts into the assembly drawings to facilitate the placement of joining parts at the factory, " explained Ville Jaatinen.
A tool in perpetual development
Ville Jaatinen realized that the latest versions of Tekla Structures software offered increasingly effective functionalities, enabling him to solve many of the problems encountered during the construction of the building for the Tapiola group.
He commented: " We would certainly have made great use of the option to define finishes for the different surfaces of a part, as is now possible with the latest versions. This would have greatly improved our work with laminated beams. Another useful enhancement is the function for creating custom components, which was under development when we used Tekla Structures software for the project. I'm sure that the custom components currently available can also be used to make connections. "
The structural engineers who took part in the project experienced it as a fascinating adventure that enabled them to acquire new and varied skills in the field of timber structures and their modeling. " We'll be much better equipped for the next project. If similar projects are implemented, I have no doubt that Tekla Structures will once again have its part to play," says Ville Jaatinen.
Finnforest
Finnforest, the company that developed the project, is part of the Metsäliitto Group, the world's tenth largest forest industry group. It operates in five business sectors: wood supply, wood product manufacturing, pulp production, paper and cardboard production, and tissue production. It generates sales of 8.6 billion euros. With a total of 30,000 employees, the parent company and its subsidiaries are present in 30 countries. For further information, please visit www.finnforest.com
WSP Finland
WSP ConsultingKORTES Ltd, the company responsible for structural design on the project, has been active in this sector since 1963. It has grown to become one of Finland's largest design offices specializing in this sector, with 100 employees and offices in Helsinki, Tampere and Oulu. WSP ConsultingKORTES excels in the design of bridges, industrial, commercial and public buildings, as well as in the design of rehabilitation works and structural testing. More information at www.wspgroup.fi
