Finland will build a pavilion made of engineered wood from Finnish forestry giant Metsa Group as the country’s business, sporting and marketing centre during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Metsa pavilion, which will be made of Kerto LVL products, will be located at the Finnish Embassy in Central Tokyo. Source: Philip Hopkins for Timberbiz
It will provide multi-functional facilities for a variety of events – exhibitions, seminars, celebrations or just relaxing – and will be a meeting place for Finland’s Olympic team during the Summer Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.
Joint partner in the project is Business Finland. The designer is Helin & Co Architects. The architect, Pekka Helin, said the long traditions of wood architecture in both Japan and Finland had been taken into consideration in the design process.
“The pavilion is approachable and authentic while being stylish and of high quality as the same time,” Mr Helin said.
One of the project’s themes is sustainability; in the future, the building will be used for other purposes. “Once the pavilion is no longer needed, it can be dis-assembled, sent to another location and rebuilt there,” Mr Helin said.
“The main idea is to demonstrate to the pavilion visitors how in Finland, wood is used ecologically and sustainably.”
Mikko Saavalainen, head of Business Development at Metsa’s wood products company Metsa Wood, said building with Kerto LVL elements was fast, while the light material allowed construction on top of existing buildings.
“Similar elements can be used also in buildings of larger scale,” he said.
Mr Saavalainen said such high-quality wood products were ecologically sustainable, functioned as a long-term carbon stock and were efficiently produced.
“The production process of the materials generates very little waste. The elements will be pre-assembled at the plant of Metsa Wood’s partner company. Assembly on site will be rapid,” he said.
Business Finland sees the pavilion as providing Finnish companies with the chance to create new business in Japan and gain new contacts in the market.
Japan is Finland’s third largest trading partner outside Europe after the United States and China. In 2017, exports to japan rose by 28% to a record high of Euro 1.3 billion. A free trade agreement between Finland and Japan comes into force in February.
Metsa Group, which had sales of 5 billion Euro in 2017, employs about 9100 people and operates in nearly 30 countries. Its parent company, Metsaliito Cooperative, is owned by about 104,000 Finnish forest owners.
