Finnish wood company Metsä Wood awarded Estonian Academy of Arts architecture students for their innovative and economy friendly design “ARRANGE – modular terraced housing”, which uses predominantly Kerto LVL (laminated veneer lumber) as a construction material. The team of five students participated in the “Future of Wood” hackathon held in Tartu and organised by the Estonian Academy of Arts, the Estonian University of Life Sciences, and Garage48.
During one weekend in November, some 80 wood enthusiasts participated in a hackathon despite the exceptional circumstances of the year 2020. As an end-result, new ideas were born that aim to promote the use of wood as a natural and renewable resource in construction for the benefit of all involved.
As one of the hackathon tasks, Metsä Wood challenged the participants to create an element or a module Kerto LVL in modular urban construction. The winner was chosen by a team of technical experts from Metsä Wood.
“ARRANGE is a quick and easy solution for developers to build a terraced housing complex, while saving their valuable time, energy and nerves,” Helin Kuldkepp, member of the winning team, said. “Using our concept means reduced construction waste and energy consumption, lower cost, as well as an easy and fast design and building process.”
The members of the winning team are Helin Kuldkepp, Patrick Liik, Laura Liis Vilbiks, Co Jael Kotkas and Abdullah Siddiqui, all architecture students in Estonian Academy of Arts. The same team was awarded the grand prize of the whole event.
“The winning concept uses the modular structure cleverly and utilises the strengths of Kerto LVL. This project is about the ease of choice and well-presented flexibility of modular wood construction,” says Tuukka Kyläkallio from Metsä Wood, one of the jury members of the hackathon. “We really hope the winner develops their concept further.”
The end-results of the challenge were uploaded on Metsä Wood’s Open Source Wood platform which promotes knowledge sharing and innovation in modular wood construction. All the designs shared on opensourcewood.com, including the winning design, are freely available to anyone.
See the winning design ARRANGE- modular terraced housing