LIGNA 2015: the digital future of wood processing and woodworking

Author
FOREST PRODUCTS | LIGNA

LIGNA 2015 is just around the corner. The international wood industry showcase, which runs from 11 to 15 May in Hannover, Germany, will put the spotlight on the growing Industry 4.0 trend of production process digitisation and the shift towards intelligent, fully integrated woodworking and wood processing machines.

The worldwide market for woodworking and wood processing machinery is worth an estimated nine billion euros and it’s on show in Hannover in just a few days’ time. Whether it’s kitchen cabinets, doors, windows or roof trusses – if it’s made of wood, it’s made using machines of the kind on show in Hannover at LIGNA 2015.
 
“Process optimisation, automation, product individualisation, they’re the big themes at LIGNA 2015,” said Dr Jochen Köckler, a member of the Managing Board of Deutsche Messe AG, the company that organises LIGNA. “Companies that work with wood are working smarter as they embrace the automated, connected world of Industry 4.0. They are looking for ways of making their production processes more efficient, and LIGNA is where they will find the innovative, highly versatile technologies they need in order to achieve this. LIGNA mobilizes visitors from all around the world by offering them what they need the most in order to stay competitive. And what they need most right now is automation and integrated production,” he said.
 
“Making the right choices in terms of Industry 4.0 can make all the difference in today’s highly competitive international markets, particularly for businesses engaged in highly specialized wood processing and woodworking operations,” Köckler added. “Greater integration benefits all players, whether they’re big industrials or joiners and cabinetmakers.”
 
With a close eye on the market, Deutsche Messe has carefully developed and refined the LIGNA exhibition program. As a result, this year’s show will present machinery and equipment for all stages of the wood value chain, from forestry, sawmilling and wood energy to solid woodworking, wood panel and veneer production, right through to industrial furniture manufacturing and the woodworking trades. Home to over 1,500 exhibitors from 48 nations, LIGNA 2015 spans 120,000 square meters (just on 1.3 million sq. ft.) of display area spread across ten exhibition halls and an extensive open-air site. Among several new features, this year’s LIGNA will include a dedicated showcase on automation and integrated production.
 
“The entire wood industry is primed and ready for LIGNA to start. All the market leaders will be there, ready and eager to unveil their innovations to the world. The wood industry likes to keep its new innovations and developments under wraps so they can premiere at LIGNA. It’s going to be an exciting week, that’s for sure,” Dr. Köckler said.
 
High level of international participation

“Process optimisation, automation, product individualisation, they’re the big themes at LIGNA 2015,” said Dr Jochen Köckler, a member of the Managing Board of Deutsche Messe AG, the company that organises LIGNA.

More than half of LIGNA’s exhibitors will come from nations other than Germany – primarily Italy, Austria and China, but also Sweden, the USA, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Spain and France. LIGNA is also impressively international on the visitor side of the market equation, with more than a third of the entire turnout this year once again hailing from beyond Germany.
 
Focus theme: integrated production

The wood industry is one of the leading users of Industry 4.0 technology. Smart, production systems that can organise, configure and optimise themselves are already taking shape in the wood processing and woodworking applications, as will be made abundantly clear at this year’s LIGNA. The show will feature entire production lines in action – living, tangible examples of digitally integrated production as an enabler of Industry 4.0. The various aspects of integrated production touched on at the exhibition stands will be explored in greater detail in the course of guided tours and a special speaking event held on site at the Robotation Academy.
 
LIGNA will also show that digital integration and automation are not the exclusive preserve of big furniture manufacturers; they are also opening up whole new ways for wood craftsmen to boost their efficiency and remain competitive. Cabinetmakers and joiners are increasingly turning to CNC systems in order to be able to deliver on the most exacting customer specifications and produce custom furniture and joinery quickly and at highly competitive rates. CNC technology will soon be the norm in joinery and cabinetmaking workshops – just as circular saws are now. At LIGNA, the world’s leading machinery manufacturers will demonstrate this fact with a comprehensive and highly tailored showcase that will give wood craftsmen all the information they need in order to make the right investment choices.
 
Focus theme: non-wood materials

This year, LIGNA is adding an exciting new string to its bow with a new special display in Hall 16 themed “Surprisingly versatile.” There, visitors will be able to learn about the kinds of products they can make from materials other than solid and engineered wood using standard wood processing machines. The aim of the special display is to demonstrate that the machines and tool systems on show at LIGNA can process much more than just wood; they can be used to machine plastics, composite panels and materials, insulation and construction materials as well. Visitors will discover that wood processing machines can process non-wood materials that have applications in a whole range of areas, including kitchen systems production, plastics fabrication and specialised solutions for the automotive and aircraft industries. The “Surprisingly versatile” display will feature several eye-popping examples of this, including a wash basin made of glass and a Lamborghini engine hood made of RTM composites.
 
Premiere of the Wood Industry Summit

Premiering this year in Hall 13 at LIGNA, the Wood Industry Summit is a combined exhibition, matchmaking platform and dialogue forum that is designed to facilitate access to emerging markets for the world’s providers of forestry and primary wood processing technologies. At the heart of the Summit is an international forum featuring speakers from industry, science and government, not to mention delegates from the most important target markets for forestry and wood processing machinery, including, most notably, the timber-rich regions of Asia, America, Eastern Europe and Russia. The machinery manufacturers will also present their solutions in the Summit’s exhibition area. The program is rounded out by a solid line-up of discussion panels and technical presentations. The Wood Industry Summit is organised by Deutsche Messe in association with the German Forestry Council (KWF), a long-standing and trusted partner that organised a highly successful international matchmaking event at the last LIGNA show in 2013.
 
This year, the forestry technology displays on the open-air site and in the pavilions clustered beneath the EXPO canopy are more diverse and international than ever before. All the key timber harvesting and wood-based energy technologies will be there. The exhibits of forestry and primary wood processing machines will feature a number of additional attractions this year, thanks to the premiere of the Wood Industry Summit. Leading forestry specialists will, for example, be presenting the latest generation of harvesters, which are equipped with a whole range of new systems to help forestry companies and forest contractors meet increasingly stringent standards and requirements both in their industry and further down stream. Faced with tighter forestry-industry regulations and the various certification systems to which most forestry operations now subscribe, machinery manufacturers are now developing solutions that are more eco-friendly. They are under pressure to provide machines that are cheaper, more efficient and less labor-intensive to operate and which allow their owners to meet more stringent soil protection standards.
 
Other exciting growth areas of the wood industry on show at LIGNA include the timber construction sector, the surface technology sector with its innovative solutions for seamless jointing, and the wood energy sector. Wood energy is gaining ground on fossil fuels like oil and gas and is an increasingly important and lucrative re-use option for waste wood generated by the wood processing industry. Another big attraction at the upcoming LIGNA show is the Fibers in Process(at)LIGNA marketplace – a new group pavilion that will provide a wood industry perspective on the various processes and technologies used in the pulp and paper industry.
 
LIGNA is also home to the most important new technologies in sawmilling, wood panel and veneer production and solid woodworking. It is known and respected around the world as a platform for high-quality dialogue, networking and knowledge-sharing among wood industry professionals. And it is the world’s No. technology showcase for the wood industry. “All the market leaders will be there with their latest product releases, which they’ve carefully timed to coincide with LIGNA,” Dr. Köckler said.

For further information log on website :
http://www.industryeurope.net/Forest/Feature/8433/LIGNA-2015-the-digital-future-of-wood-processing-and-woodworking/

Cross-laminated Timber: the Future of Building?

Author
BY: 

ANDREA WATTS & LESLIE HELM

| FROM THE PRINT EDITION | 

JUNE 2015

Before aerospace, software and coffee defined the Pacific Northwest, timber was the industry that fueled our economy. Now, a radical new approach toward sustainable construction — building high-rises from wood — could bring timber back into the spotlight, stimulating rural economies and promoting forest health in a way that architects, conservation groups and timber companies can get behind. 

While the Pacific Northwest likes to boast of its many green buildings, they can’t match wood high-rises in Europe and Australia that have carbon footprints a quarter that of similar-size buildings of steel and concrete. A 10-story wood apartment building called Forte was recently completed in Melbourne, Australia. The Tree is a 14-story luxury apartment building in Bergen, Norway, that will be the world’s tallest wood building when it is completed this fall. Next year, builders will begin construction on HoHo, a 24-story hotel/office/apartment tower in Vienna composed of 76 percent wood.

With the Pacific Northwest’s abundant forests, “we need to think of a Cascadia approach to developing this industry,” says Michael Green, a Vancouver, British Columbia, architect whose TED Talk two years ago helped to spark local interest in high-rises of wood. Green built the six-story Wood Innovation and Design Centre, the largest wood building in North America, in Prince George, British Columbia. He is now designing a 33-story wood tower for a location in Paris, France.

How can wood possibly replace steel and concrete in high-rise buildings? The answer is cross-laminated timber (CLT), a relatively new engineered wood product that is part of a broader category of products called “mass timber” that includes already popular products such as glulam beams. CLT panels can be made in dimensions up to 10 feet wide and 40 feet long and more than a foot thick. 

The panels are composed of layers of individual pieces of lumber laminated together, with each layer arranged perpendicular to the next rather than longitudinally. An odd number of layers are bonded together by glue, dowels or nails. Once assembled, the panels form a box-like structure where the walls and floors provide both structural stability and lateral stiffness.

Architects love CLT because the beauty of the wood surface can be showcased with no need for paint or drywall. Though the panels cost roughly the same as steel and concrete, they are  far lighter and quicker to assemple on site. And lest you think that a wood building wouldn’t be safe during a fire or an earthquake, full-scale tests show its fire resistance is comparable to steel and concrete. A seven-story CLT building tested in Japan showed no sign of damage in an earthquake the magnitude of the 1995 Kobe, Japan, event.

What makes clt so compelling is that it can be manufactured using “junk” trees with diameters as small as 4 inches, including many dead trees. National forests on either side of the Cascades are filled with “dog-hair thickets” of Western hemlock, Douglas fir and other trees that are conducive to wildfires and pest outbreaks. Thin trees are uneconomical to harvest today because they have so little value, yet federal and state forest managers don’t have the budget to clear them. When incorporated into CLT panels, that wood could provide the raw material to build many of the mid-rise buildings popping up in Seattle and other urban centers across the country. 

“Everybody sees it coming,” says Timothy Punke, senior vice president of corporate affairs and public policy at Plum Creek Timber Company, which owns vast forestlands in Washington state. “It’s a huge opportunity to build environmentally friendly cities while helping rural economies that depend on timber and creating incentives for more people to plant more acres as trees.”

Today, there are only 26 CLT manufacturers worldwide. Most are clustered around Austria, which gave birth to the industry. Analysts estimate the market potential in the United States is $4 billion, but sales could eventually grow far beyond that. Cees de Jager, chief marketing officer of the Softwood Lumber Board, an industry group, says 77 percent of the square footage built each year in the United States is less than 12 stories high and could be made with mass timber. Of nonresidential buildings under 12 stories, 90 percent today are made of steel and concrete. Replacing those with wood would sharply reduce the building sector’s carbon footprints, but the United States is far behind Europe, Australia and Canada in building with mass timber. “It’s not normal for the United States to be in fourth place,” says de Jager. “We have to get to the gold level.”

To be sure, it could be years before the notoriously conservative building sector takes to using CLT in construction in any major way. It’s unclear whether sustainable forest practices can provide enough fiber at dependable levels over the long term. Building codes and the absence of local mills manufacturing CLT are also a problem. And while more jobs might eventually be added in the forests and mills, there could be fewer jobs at construction sites. CLT’s construction technique, based on the lifting systems used for precast concrete construction, employs a crane to lower into place panels that are then bolted together. This method requires a smaller crew at the building site.

Nevertheless, local leaders are moving forward to explore opportunities aggressively. “It’s a potentially powerful way to monetize the ability to restore our forests, remove some of the fuel load and even start to create a more complex working forest,” says Gene Duvernoy, who as CEO of Forterra (formerly the Cascade Land Conservancy) is known for bringing together divergent environmental and business groups behind common goals. If the industry can be developed sustainably, Duvernoy says, it should happen here. “We are a leader in technology, aerospace and coffee,” he notes. “We have lots of forests. We deserve to be a leader in this world.”

Last September, Forterra hosted a meeting that brought together an unlikely alliance of Pacific Northwest environmentalists, timber companies, politicians, architects and academics in the hope of jumpstarting an industry around CLT. The group continues to convene monthly to identify opportunities to demonstrate the value of CLT for communities, the environment and the economy. 

“Having a conservation group like Forterra recognize this [CLT] opportunity changes the game completely,” says Tom DeLuca, a professor in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington. “They look at it from a whole systems approach and are effective at getting support for environmental groups. They bring credibility to the floor.”
Washington Congressman Derek Kilmer, whose 6th District includes the entire Olympic Peninsula, which has been hit hard by the shuttering of sawmill operations, sees CLT as an important growth engine.

“New manufactured-wood products like cross-laminated timber are not only good for the environment,” says Kilmer, “but they also have potential to create new manufacturing jobs in our rural communities.” He recently added language to a defense authorization encouraging the Department of Defense to use CLT products in housing and other construction projects.
Timber companies like the idea that society might recognize forests as a source of sustainable resources.

“More uses for wood will drive up [timberland] prices,” says Colin Moseley, chairman of Green Diamond Resource Company (formerly Simpson Resource Company), a fifth-generation, family-run business that owns 300,000 acres of forestland in Washington state and recently planted its 100 millionth tree. Higher-value timberland, in turn, creates incentives for land managers to buy more property that might otherwise be targeted for real estate development and convert it to timber production instead.

For the moment, Washington is well behind its Pacific Northwest neighbors in embracing CLT. British Columbia’s Structurlam Products was the first to build a CLT manufacturing facility in 2011. SmartLam Technologies operates a CLT-manufacturing plant in Montana and supplies panels that are used as skids at construction sites. And a government-industry collaboration helped launched a CLT manufacturing plant in Oregon this year. A Portland-based real estate development company is planning to break ground next year on a 12-story, mixed-use wood high-rise in Portland’s Pearl District. And the city of Springfield, Oregon, is exploring the possibility of building the first mass-timber parking garage in the United States.

Washington architects see CLT as a perfect fit for the state. “The environmental story behind CLT is inspiring,” says Joe Mayo, who traveled the world researching mass timber buildings and recently published Solid Wood: Case Studies in Mass Timber Architecture, Technology and Design. Architects like to use local materials, and “having a structural material that you can leave exposed gets at the heart of our regional architecture,” Mayo adds.

Projects in Washington using CLT include the Brelsford Washington State University Visitor Center in Pullman and the International Community Health Services’ Shoreline Medical & Dental Clinic. Susan Jones, a Seattle architect, recently completed a two-story home made entirely of CLT, believed to be the first in the country.

The true benefit of clt as a sustainable building product is only realized when it replaces steel and concrete in high-rise construction.

“For the first time, architects can push through the four-story limits of light-frame construction and design mid-rise buildings with wood,” says Don Bender, director of the Composite Materials & Engineering Center at Washington State University. He sees more 8- to 12-story buildings being made from wood, as they are in Europe. Bender and his colleagues at WSU are studying ways of leapfrogging the existing technology to help build a more advanced CLT sector in Washington.

For all the advantages of CLT, getting the industry off the ground has proven difficult. It’s the chicken-and-egg situation: Mill owners don’t want to invest $3 million to $6 million to build automated production lines capable of manufacturing 10-foot-by-40-foot panels until there’s a steady, reliable demand. Yet demand won’t develop until a local supplier makes material costs more reasonable.

Another obstacle is American building codes that stifle innovation. European and Canadian codes are performance based, says Ethan Martin, Northwest regional director at WoodWorks, an industry group that supports wood construction. “[In Europe] you can say, ‘I’ve run the calculations and I believe this material can support the load,’” he says. “The U.S. code is prescriptive: ‘If you do A, then B, then C, you can use this product.’ That’s a challenge if a new material requires a new approach to building.”

There has been some progress on this front. In 2012, the city of Seattle updated its building code to include CLT. The 2015 International Building Code includes more references to CLT construction and the next revision in 2018 will include even more. Though Susan Jones says it took four months to obtain the permits for her CLT-built home in Seattle, she praised the city for granting the permits and visiting the site to see the use of CLT firsthand. Several cities, including Minneapolis and Portland, have promised close cooperation with builders to grant variances allowing for 10-story wood buildings. 

Cost is another barrier to more widespread use of CLT panels. Jones says the cost of framing her house was twice as expensive as it would have been with traditional construction in large part because of the high cost of shipping the panels from the manufacturer in British Columbia. The lack of CLT manufacturers and the paucity of contractors familiar with the material’s hidden cost benefits also contribute to higher costs.

Federal support may help close the gap. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is promoting the sector with grants and contests. Winners of the $2 million Tall Wood Building Prize Competition, which has the goal of encouraging the construction of high-rise wood buildings, will be announced later this year. At least two groups in Washington and one in Oregon have entered. The Softwood Lumber Board is working with the USDA and with universities to create online courses and to explore the creation of skill development for workers who will eventually be working with CLT on the job site. 

But one of the key drivers behind developing a CLT industry is the supply side. “[CLT] is not just about a new material that can be bought at Home Depot,” says Hans-Erik Blomgren, an associate at the Seattle office of Arup, a London-based company with extensive experience in building high-rises with CLT and which has partnered with Washington State University to enter the competition. “It’s a disruptive technology to the current state of the industry where panels are built in a factory and delivered in a lightweight, easy-to-transport way. Selling logs to China is not what we should be doing. We should be building high-value products.”

Though harvest levels on state and private lands have remained constant over the years, they have plummeted on federal lands because of pressure from environmentalists. This has forced sawmills to shut down, leaving many rural communities with high unemployment. And with federal forests too budget constrained, they cannot engage in the selective thinning required to increase wildlife habitat, reduce fire danger and provide space for maturing trees.

CLT could fundamentally change the way forests are managed by creating demand for small-diameter trees. Support from environmentalists might also result in compromises that would stop court challenges that are now stalling harvesting in federal forests. Confidence that a steady supply of small-diameter wood would be available could encourage mill owners to consider investing in CLT manufacturing, although some subsidies might be required to encourage the first investments. There is discussion of state support for a CLT plant in Darrington, near the site of the 2014 Oso landslide. The city of Forks has offered land and is looking for a partner to build a CLT mill. 

If handled right, the timber used in the manufacture of CLT “should be seen as renewable and green, not an extractive industry [like mining],” says DeLuca. “It’s about green building materials and more sustainable forest management.” And, presumably, a future of forestry that everyone can support. 

At Home in Seattle

Susan Jones says building the first single-family residence in Seattle solely with CLT required a lot more planning because the CLT panels are prefabricated with windows and doorways already cut out. Her firm, atelierjones, spent three months working with computer numerical control (CNC) technicians at Structrurlam Products, a CLT manufacturer in British Columbia, to produce the panels for her custom-built house. That advanced design planning paid off. When the panels were dropped into place, she says, “they fit like a glove.”

Sloan Ritchie, the owner of Cascade Built, which built Jones’ house, says working with CLT for the first time wasn’t all that complicated. The crew did have to contend with windy November days that shut down use of the crane. But Ritchie says construction time was still faster than with a stick-frame project. The first floor of Jones’ house was up in two days, and the entire structure was framed in two weeks. — A.W.

Creating a Mass-timber Industry Here

Washington State University has received a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a joint effort with the private sector that it hopes will improve the functioning of an entire CLT supply chain. Architects, for example, might be able to send their CAD/CAM designs to a CLT manufacturer and have those designs seamlessly transferred into the software that tells numerically controlled machines where and how to cut the CLT panes.

Where today manufacturers use a subtracting process, first building the panels and then cutting out windows and doors, a process that wastes wood, an advanced manufacturing plant would use an additive process, like a 3-D printer, that puts wood only where it is needed, leaving voids for doors, windows, plumbing, mechanical and electrical lines. The machines could install various materials in LEGO-like fashion between the sheets to add soundproofing, fire resistance and other capabilities.

“It’s about using advanced manufacturing to get beyond just thick, dumb panels and put in functionality,” says Todd Beyreuther, an assistant research professor in WSU’s Institute for Sustainable Design. “Architects would be able to use all the technology at their disposal to customize materials to their specific needs. It’s about asking the wood [panel] to perform many functions with engineering and technology. The premise is that architects already think that way.” 

WSU is working with Vaagan Brothers Lumber, a technologically advanced Colville-based sawmill and logging company; Spokane Valley’s Berg Manufacturing, which has sophisticated capabilities for installing plumbing and electricity in containers used for camping; and SmartLam Technologies, a Montana-based CLT manufacturer. The goal is to build a pilot manufacturing facility to advance the state of the CLT manufacturing art. 

“Ideally, you would put timber in one end and get [smart] panels with the plumbing and electricity already installed at the other end,” says Andy Barrett, executive director at Berg Manufacturing. The electricity and plumbing would be connected at the same time the panels are bolted together at the construction site.

Although no company has yet committed to building a CLT manufacturing plant in Washington state, Beyreuther notes more and more people are asking how to get into the business. “In the next three to five years, we might see quite a jump in manufacturing,” he says.

He believes it would make sense to have two CLT manufacturers in eastern Washington and two more in western Washington so that architects who want to control everything down to the species of wood used in the panels can collaborate closely with the manufacturer.

Beyreuther hopes to construct a large commercial building of CLT in the next two to three years, and he says building codes are not a barrier. “There is a green light on everything,” he declares. “We could build a 10-story building today. It’s just not yet cost effective.”  — L.H.

Meanwhile, in Oregon

While Washington tries to build momentum behind its CLT effort, Oregon is off and running. Oregon BEST, a state-funded nonprofit with the goal of leveraging clean-tech research, provided $150,000 last year to D.R. Johnson Lumber Company and Riddle Laminators to help build and certify a Douglas fir CLT production line.

Valerie Johnson, president of D.R. Johnson Lumber, says the company expanded an existing building and installed new presses capable of producing the larger panels. “Because we have been manufacturing glulam beams for nearly 40 years, we have roughly one-fourth of the necessary equipment already,” says Johnson. “Once you’re used to resins, clamping and gluing, it’s not a process you’re afraid of.”

It took less than a year to design the presses; installation required less than two months. The plant can build panels up to 10 feet by 24 feet, but could add presses capable of producing 42-foot panels if the demand emerges.

Following certification by the Tacoma-based Engineered Wood Association, Johnson already has prospective customers lining up, including Oregon State University and the city of Springfield. — A.W.

For further information log on website :
http://www.seattlebusinessmag.com/article/cross-laminated-timber-future-building

Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

​​Stora Enso Building Solutions have supplied CLT for London’s iconic Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre​. 

 

The much loved Theatre is a London landmark and a firm fixture of summer in the city, with more than 130,000 people attending performances between May and September.  The auditorium is one of the largest in London with 1,240 seats, yet those who attend say it is also one of the most intimate.​

PHOTO BY: David Jenson

Stora Enso has supplied CLT for London’s iconic Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre which was celebrating its 80th season in 2012.

The series of buildings were designed by Haworth Tompkins Architects and erected by specialist timber contractors, Eurban. The new backstage area comprises a new office block, dressing rooms, wardrobe area and workshops and front of house a new box office and sheltered seating canopy have been created.

The various buildings are constructed using pre-fabricated cross-laminated timber (CLT) boards produced at Stora Enso’s Bad St. Leonard unit in Austria. The specification of CLT allowed construction within the 6-month window between theatre seasons. The lightweight frames required minimal foundations and enabled existing tree-root systems to be preserved.

Most of the internal surfaces of the industrial grade CLT boards have been left exposed - a testament perhaps to the excellent quality of Stora Enso’s CLT.

Project architect, Ken Okwonko explains “we were keen on the aesthetic of CLT as an internal finish due to the nature of the site, within a densely wooded section of the park, and the type of functions of the spaces”.

The decision to leave the inner facings exposed also removes the need for ‘wet’ trades such as plastering and provides a blank canvas against which the theatre company can work.

“CLT naturally lends itself to the landscape of this historic royal park and the internal exposure of the boards gives a fresh and robust feeling of wellbeing to members of the public and of the theatre company” says Wayne Probert, UK Sales Manager, Stora Enso Building and Living.

Given that most of the spaces are backstage, the exposed surfaces work well and the CLT appears almost as a ‘wallpaper’ - ready to work against, whether in the changing room, workshop annexe or the staff offices. CLT is a robust material that can be pinned-to, painted directly and easily takes screw fixings to deal with future aesthetic uplifts to the interiors if needed.

The new box office is central to the renovation as it presents the public face of the theatre, which is open all year round.  When completely closed the Box Office presents a subdued frontage to the park and when in use the building opens out onto the surrounding landscape revealing the exposed CLT within which has been decorated with gilded foliage to hint at the theatrical magic to follow.  In total the box office has three configurations depending on its use throughout the day and season. 

​“I am delighted that Stora Enso has had the opportunity to play a part in such an environmentally & culturally important project.  The UK Government is committed to sustainability in all areas of construction and it is great news that CLT’s excellent sustainability credentials are being increasingly recognised” Probert continues.

​​Stora Enso has supplied CLT for London’s iconic Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre which was celebrating its 80th season in 2012.

The series of buildings were designed by Haworth Tompkins Architects and erected by specialist timber contractors, Eurban. The new backstage area comprises a new office block, dressing rooms, wardrobe area and workshops and front of house a new box office and sheltered seating canopy have been created.

The various buildings are constructed using pre-fabricated cross-laminated timber (CLT) boards produced at Stora Enso’s Bad St. Leonard unit in Austria. The specification of CLT allowed construction within the 6-month window between theatre seasons. The lightweight frames required minimal foundations and enabled existing tree-root systems to be preserved.

Most of the internal surfaces of the industrial grade CLT boards have been left exposed - a testament perhaps to the excellent quality of Stora Enso’s CLT.

Project architect, Ken Okwonko explains “we were keen on the aesthetic of CLT as an internal finish due to the nature of the site, within a densely wooded section of the park, and the type of functions of the spaces”.

The decision to leave the inner facings exposed also removes the need for ‘wet’ trades such as plastering and provides a blank canvas against which the theatre company can work.

“CLT naturally lends itself to the landscape of this historic royal park and the internal exposure of the boards gives a fresh and robust feeling of wellbeing to members of the public and of the theatre company” says Wayne Probert, UK Sales Manager, Stora Enso Building and Living.

Given that most of the spaces are backstage, the exposed surfaces work well and the CLT appears almost as a ‘wallpaper’ - ready to work against, whether in the changing room, workshop annexe or the staff offices. CLT is a robust material that can be pinned-to, painted directly and easily takes screw fixings to deal with future aesthetic uplifts to the interiors if needed.

The new box office is central to the renovation as it presents the public face of the theatre, which is open all year round.  When completely closed the Box Office presents a subdued frontage to the park and when in use the building opens out onto the surrounding landscape revealing the exposed CLT within which has been decorated with gilded foliage to hint at the theatrical magic to follow.  In total the box office has three configurations depending on its use throughout the day and season. 

​“I am delighted that Stora Enso has had the opportunity to play a part in such an environmentally & culturally important project.  The UK Government is committed to sustainability in all areas of construction and it is great news that CLT’s excellent sustainability credentials are being increasingly recognised” Probert continues.

For further information log on website :
http://buildingandliving.storaenso.com/news/rethink-articles/regents-park

Via Cenni

​The Via Cenni social housing project in Milan, Italy, comprises four 27-metre-high, nine-storey “wooden towers” built – from the supporting structures to the elevator shafts – with Stora Enso CLT.

 

This project is definitely a showcase for social housing using multi-storey timber construction. 

PHOTO BY: promo legno

The completion of the innovative Via Cenni residential complex in 2013 was a true highlight in the history of European wood construction. Via Cenni, in Milan, is definitely a showcase for social housing using multi-storey timber construction. The main arguments for the use of CLT (cross-laminated timber) were short erection time, seismic safety, sustainability and good thermal insulation properties.

  

A true symbol of sustainability

Already one year after the start of construction in January 2012, the four towers were ready for the topping-out ceremony. The project was completed in October 2013, and by November the first inhabitants could move in. In addition to ecological aspects, the extremely fast construction method was one of the decisive factors behind the selection of renewable wood as the building material. A total of 6,100 cubic meters of CLT were used to build 124 apartments in an area of 17,000 square meters. 

One goal of the project, stated in the EU-wide tendering process, was to create modern social housing which meets ecological as well as economic aspects of sustainability. In order to meet these requirements, lead architect Fabrizio Rossi Prodi and his structural engineers relied on CLT as the load-bearing material.​​​

 

CLT – excellent material properties

CLT is an innovative building material with groundbreaking properties: It is lighter than concrete or brick, it has highly effective insulation, soundproofing and fire-safety properties and it is especially resistant to earthquakes. “We are very pleased to see that sustainable building has gained a foothold also in residential buildings. This sets the direction for future projects. The high degree of prefabrication of CLT elements enables fast erection times and offers cost advantages. CLT facilitates the fast production of homes for many people – housing that meets modern requirements in terms of comfort and sustainability,” says Herbert Jöbstl, Head of Operations Central Europe in Stora Enso Building and Living.

CLT facilitates the fast production of homes for many people – housing that meets modern requirements in terms of comfort and sustainability,” says Herbert Jöbstl. 

 

​Wooden construction aiming high: nine storeys and more

Via Cenni is an extraordinary project because of the consistent use of CLT – from walls and ceilings to the elevator shafts. “Via Cenni was the largest project for Stora Enso Building and Living so far,” says Matti Mikkola, Head of Building Solutions Business Development in Stora Enso Building and Living. 

​However, the size of the project was not a problem from the perspective of the CLT supplier: “In theory, we could produce CLT for a project of this magnitude in less than three weeks.” In Mikkola’s view, the Via Cenni project is the best proof that today, multi-storey wood construction up to nine storeys is state of the art. Experts are already talking about ten storeys and more. “The project also proves that wood construction is not more expensive than brick or concrete construction, and thus enables the creation of affordable housing,” concludes Mikkola.
 
In addition to affordability, the planning of the Via Cenni also included the principle of social interaction. The approx. 1 000 m2 courtyard garden of the residential complex serves as a social meeting place. Just like the “renewable” wooden residential towers, the garden itself is a memorable symbol of sustainability put into practice.  

For further infoirmation log on website :
http://buildingandliving.storaenso.com/news/rethink-articles/viacenni

Viewpoint on the wooden construction future: Professor Frank Lam

What will be the coming trends and developments in the wood construction industry? What are the key success factors for wooden construction in the future? In the following, Professor Frank Lam from the University of British Columbia shares his views on these questions.​

TEXT BY: Stora Enso

PHOTO BY: Stora Enso

​“The upcoming trends and developments in the wood construction industry are towards taller and larger high profile structures, more than 8 storeys high, built with heavy timber and engineered wood products. These may be constructed mostly out of wood or using wood in combination with other building materials to form hybrid structures,” says professor Frank Lam.
 
Frank Lam is Senior Chair Professor for Wood Building Design and Construction at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. The Wood Science department’s research and development programmes focus on industrial manufacturing of wood products, biotechnology and bio-products, management, marketing and sustainability as well as wooden construction technologies.

“In order to change the norms, research plays an important role but nevertheless this is a slow process.” ​​

 ​“Even though the share of wood construction and taller wooden buildings has been increasing in North America, the building codes do not fully deal with these types of buildings or new engineered wood products,” adds Frank Lam. “In order to change the norms, research plays an important role but nevertheless this is a slow process.”

​High rise buildings increase confidence in wood construction 

Professor Lam sees high rises playing an important role in the development of wooden construction industry as they can act as example structures that boost confidence in building smaller (4 to 6 storey) commercial or residential buildings. 
 
“We should also keep in mind that the wooden construction sector should not be limited to countries already familiar with timber as a building material but also in emerging and new markets where the use of wood is a somewhat new concept”, Lam reminds.

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Four factors for success

​In general, Professor Lam sees four critical areas that will define the success of the wooden construction sector in the future. “First of all, cost and quality control from the products and building perspective is important; secondly the industry needs to be able to define and quantify performance not only on the product level but also on the component, system and structural levels. Proper quantification of performance allows wood-based solutions to be compared against other building materials in an objective and scientific manner,” Lam argues.

 
“In addition to these two, future success calls for continuous development of new products, and the refinement of existing products is needed as the industry moves into new markets. Last but not least, support for timber design education and research is critical.” ​

For further information log on website :
http://buildingandliving.storaenso.com/news/rethink-articles/viewpoint-on-the-wooden-construction-future-with-professor-frank-lam