Espoo, Finland, Nov 1, .2016 -- Metsä Wood’s competition has inspired architects worldwide to design wooden extensions to city centres. Entries from 40 countries proposed wooden solutions to the challenges of urbanization. Winning designs were made to New York, Shanghai and Tampere, Finland.

Architects from 40 countries created their Plan B for urbanization using wood (Kerto® LVL – laminated veneer lumber) as the main material. The task was to design a wooden extension to an existing urban building. The entries were designed for 69 cities worldwide, including Sidney, Shanghai, New York, Berlin, Paris and London. The competition was organised by Metsä Wood.

“Construction must become sustainable and cities must stay liveable. I am happy that so many architects share this view, especially the younger generation,” says Michael Green from MGA architects and DBR Design Build Research, who chairs the jury. “The entries were innovative and added value to both the building and the community.”

“The designs were realistic and demonstrated a good understanding of LVL as a building material,” says Professor Stefan Winter, who holds the Chair of Timber Construction and Structural Engineering at the Technical University of Munich. “Because of its lightness and fast construction time, Kerto LVL is an ideal material for this challenge.”

“Building wooden extensions in existing communities can be a significant solution for urbanization. Instead of demolishing communities, we could enhance them,” says Mike Kane, an architect and senior lecturer at London South Bank University. “This competition should be seen as a catalyst for future debate on sustainable and progressive cities worldwide.”

Winners from different parts of the world

“Urbanization has increased interest in building with wood. The potential for timber extensions is large – over 100 million square metres in Germany alone,” says Mikko Saavalainen, SVP of Business Development at Metsä Wood.

Winners received awards in two categories: small-scale intervention and large-scale intervention. The total value of the prizes is EUR 35,000.

First prize winners in the small-scale intervention category were Nile Greenberg (USA) for his design for New York and Alma Studio (Spain) for their design for Shanghai. The runners-up were Superspace (Turkey) with a design for Istanbul and Sigurd Larsen Design & Architecture (Germany) with a design for Berlin.

First prize winners in the large-scale intervention category were Lisa Voigtländer (Germany) and SungBok Song (Korea) for their design for Tampere, Finland. The runners-up were Basic Architects (Australia) with a design for Perth, L Arkkitehdit (Finland) with a design for Helsinki, Giuseppe De Marinis Gallo and Gianluca Gnisci (Italy) with a design for New York and Kim Min Jae Architects (Hong Kong) with a design for Hong Kong.

See the complete works at: planb.metsawood.com

Images:  http://databank.metsagroup.com/l/QXN_pcPcgdjH

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Henni Rousu
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Metsä Wood
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Kirk Nichols
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Metsä Wood USA
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Metsä Wood provides competitive and environmentally friendly wood products for construction, industrial customers and distributor partners. We manufacture products from Nordic wood, a sustainable raw material of premium quality. Our sales in 2015 were EUR 0.9 billion, and we employ about 2,000 people. Metsä Wood is part of Metsä Group.