Prefabricated wooden elements speed up construction

Metsa Group's new visitor centre in Aanekoski, in Central Finland, is a prime example of fast construction using wood. The 1,000 sq m building showcases fast, light and green construction. The building combines industrially manufactured wooden elements and unique architectural solutions with detailed carpentry.
     The wooden column and beam frame of the building and its prefabricated wall, floor and roof elements are made from laminated veneer lumber products. In the building, the wooden materials and many construction engineering details have been left visible as part of the exhibition. Metsa Wood's wood products have also been used in various ways in the visitor centre's interior design and visual solutions.
     Pro Nemus was built in Aanekoski in just seven months. The tight schedule was the greatest challenge during the project, in which architectural details needed to be implemented with exceptional precision. Good planning and cooperation between the various parties played a major role in the implementation of the project.
     "Construction using wooden elements is fast and efficient, and project management is easier when structures consisting of elements are increasingly completed at factories," says Tero Vesanen, Managing Director of VVR. "Metsa Wood's Kerto LVL products were delivered to the element factory cut to our specification, meaning that assembling was highly efficient at our end."
     "This building combines industrial wood construction with a high level of detailed carpentry. This is just what is best about building with wood: the material itself creates opportunities for many types of processing, which are easy to implement," says Ulla Passoja from UKI Architects, the project architect.
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