Green Gold: The tale of Wood City

4 0 –– S O L I B R I J O U R N A L SUCCESS STORIES GREEN GOLD: THE TALE OF WOOD CITY

ILLUSTRATIONS OUTI KAINNIEMI

“The feeling that wood offers is both calming and connecting with nature.”

AARO MARTIKAINEN, LEAD ARCHITECT

‘G reen Gold’ is often used in Finland to describe the abun dance of one natural resource – that being wood. Finland, like its Nordic partners has access to a huge forestry resource and it has shaped some of the country’s biggest businesses for many years. With the current climate discussions and leaps in modern technology, the concept of wood construction has once again become a focus of activity. To explore this development, I spoke with Aaro Martikainen, a lead architect from Anttinen Oiva architects in Helsinki, Finland. Aaro has been engaged both as architectural designer and BIM Manager on ‘Wood City’ – a large construction development in central Helsinki, one that not surprisingly, is based on wood being the central material in its delivery. I spoke with him to hear how Solibri has been used in this project in conjunction with materials being provided by Stora Enso. Aaro dispels the myths around what a modern architect is. In his 15-year career, he has done a range of large-scale projects. He found himself taking the challenge of Wood City because of his love for both wood as a material and his confidence in using the latest construction software to help deliver a modernist design with a very traditional twist. Previously, Aaro has been an entrepreneur and consultant, helping other architectural offices enter the digital world. He loved playing with computers as a kid and so perhaps this is no coincidence.

“I’ve always had a love for wood. As a boy, I was always playing, crafting and making objects from wood in our family summer house. It was actually a material I was most confident with when beginning my career. The feeling that wood offers is both calming and connecting with nature. There have been studies on how wood is being used in schools to offer a calming effect for its students. You combine that with the sustainability angle and you have a real interesting proposition for the future of construction”. Explains Aaro.

Wood City is currently under construction. The site comprises of 2 apartment buildings, an office building and parking facility. In time there is a plan for a new hotel to join the site. It

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is the biggest wood construction site in Finland. “Sweden is ahead of us in using wood in modern construction. Other European countries are also following the trend. I’m interested to see how it will take shape here. The combination of local trends, regulation and design heritage means we will have a unique mix. This has been a hugely complex project. Probably the most to date in my career. The mix of new technologies and materials have had a huge influence on me. I probably won’t even realize it until much later in my work” said Aaro.

I asked Aaro to tell us how the team used Solibri in the build. “As this was such a demanding project, we needed to be sure that all the models were correct, federated and updated. We had cutting machines offsite and they needed ready checked BIM files to work. We designed in both Grasshopper and ARCHICAD. The architectural IFC file was then taken from ARCHICAD and all the co-ordination done in Solibri. It would have been virtually impossible to visualize issues without Solibri. We held weekly meetings where Solibri was the tool of choice for the coordination discussions. I even found Solibri screengrabs being used in WhatsApp when we were really busy. I was actually surprised how comprehensive a tool Solibri proved to be in this project. We worked very smoothly with Tietoa, the BIM coordination group to maintain good IFC files and a steady flow of quality models. They also extensively used Solibri with customized rulesets. I joked at the time, if a picture says a thousand words, then a BIM file says a thousand pictures”. Laughed Aaro.

Focusing on wood as a material, I asked Aaro to tell us what part of the build he was most proud of. “I’m really proud of the wooden undulating ceiling in the lobby area. It looks so simple and beautiful in wood but underneath it lies the intelligence you would expect in a

WOOD CITY

Wood City is the latest and largest concentrated wood development project within Finland. It will host numerous buildings for both living and working.

modern theater. There were plenty of technical installations to do within the wood surrounds and I really look forward to seeing it used in reality. It transforms the space to a range of uses, all much more than a normal lobby entrance. It just simply works, looks stunning and makes a great impression”.

Wood City opens for business in late December 2020, when the gaming giant Supercell moves in. Aaro is brimming with ideas on what’s next for him. “I will always be an archi tect. It’s my first love and being able to combine technology, new thinking and materials keeps me energized and focused. I have only recently realized how being an architect is really about being a complex problem solver. That kind of thinking is now being recognized and be offered to other industries to learn from. Every day I use my imagination to create environments that really change human interaction. With all these new technologies coming online, we’re ILLUSTRATIONS OUTI KAINNIEMI moving into the diffusion stage where we can work say 100 times faster than even five years ago. It used to be that one site team did all the building work as construction projects were simpler. Now we’re seeing a whole new value chain from city planning to the end user. Each build has many more specialists delivering specific elements within the workflow. The glue that holds these teams together is BIM. And the BIM file needs to be correct or else the whole thing goes off the rails”.

It really does seem that Wood City is a perfect Nordic story. Wood, design, technology and commitment combined to create something that is both ecologically sustainable and memorable. I wonder what Aaro will build in summer house after this project. I’m sure it will be made of wood, that’s for sure.

RUSSELL ANDERSON