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‘Wood has been used in construction for thousands of years, and the opportunities, limitations and requirements of building in wood are well known. Wood has not been regarded as a modern material and that is why it has been little used in building urban environments. However, building practices are now changing. For example, these days solutions that take environmental efficiency, recycling and the thermal properties of materials into account are at the heart of construction. Just a few decades ago, these were not regarded as particularly significant issues’, explains Philip Tidwell, an instructor at the Aalto University Department of Architecture.

The theme of the international wood construction conference, Forum Wood Building Nordic 2016 is “Progress through collaboration”.

‘There is a lot of knowledge about building in wood in Finland, and the conference is an excellent opportunity to share skills and learn from experiences from all over the world. The programme includes almost 50 presentations from all corners of the world. An interesting Finnish example from the two-day programme is the presentation on Friday morning by Tomi Timonen, mayor of Pudasjärvi. Pudasjärvi has followed its own path in the use of wood in public buildings. The municipality wanted to get away from the repeated problems with internal air in old schools and decided to build a new nursery school using traditional solid squared logs. Mr. Timonen explains how public procurement can promote the local economy and the use of renewable building materials’, explained Pekka Heikkinen, Head of the Department of Architecture at Aalto University.

Held on the Otaniemi campus of Aalto University, the conference is being organised by Aalto University, the City of Espoo, the Finnish Timber Council and the Finnish Woodworking Industries Federation. This is the main event for wood construction in Europe. The Nordic version of the German International Forum Holzbau conference has previously been held in Finland, Sweden and Norway.

Further information:

Professori Pekka Heikkinen
tel. +358 50 377 3786
pekka.heikkinen@aalto.fi

Twitter: #woodforum