Major wood city planned for Helsinki

Forestry company Stora Enso and construction company SRV are to build in co-operation a Wood City on a site in Helsinki’s Jätkäsaari district. The two companies have submitted proposal for the project to the Real Estate Board of the City of Helsinki.  If accepted, the first buildings would be completed in 2013.  The plan is to build office-, hotel- and commercial buildings on the Jätkäsaari site totalling some 27,000 square metres.

According to Stora Enso and SRV special attention will be paid to solutions that improve energy efficiency when designing and constructing the buildings for the area.  An invitation-only design competition is planned with the goal of ensuring a high standard, internationally interesting and progressive plan for Wood City.
 Thanks to new fire safety regulations that came into effect in April, now Finland also has an excellent opportunity to secure its place on the international field as one of the top countries for innovative and environmentally friendly multi-storey wooden construction and, above all, an opportunity to build office buildings up to eight storeys high from wood, comments UPM’s  Executive Vice President, Wood Products, Hannu Kasurinen.

The Jätkäsaari site will feature Finland’s first tall structures made from wood elements and these will show the way for future development, believes SRV’s Senior Executive Vice President Timo Nieminen.

Source: Good News from Finland, October 2011