One of the world’s largest forest companies has a new HQ after Stora Enso moved into the new Helsinki-based Katajanokan Laituri (or Katajanokka Pier) in near record time – now Finland’s largest mass timber building, unquestionably located in one of the most demanding martime terrains.
“Katajanokan Laituri is a masterpiece of Finnish timber construction,” according to Hans Sohlström, President and CEO of Stora Enso, who added that the (almost) all timber offices “provide high-quality, sustainable facilities for our head office, staff, and others working in and visiting the building.”
Designed by Anttinen Oiva Architects, the building is the first in decades to be developed along Helsinki’s harbourfront – tapping into lightweight and prefabricated ‘plug and play’ timber materials to build a 4-storey mixed-use development featuring a hotel—Solo Sokos Hotel Pier 4—all built over and above Stora Enso’s offices.
“The goal has been to create a calm presence in the historical milieu, but at the same time, to have an interesting new environment for locals and millions of visitors,” said Selina Anttinen, architect and partner at Anttinen Oiva Architects, who said the new building also acts as a flood barrier:
Kitted out with more than 6,000 cubic metres of cross-laminated timber in the walls, floors, roofs and stairs, 1,700 cubic metres of laminated veneer lumber beams and columns – both from Stora Enso’s Sylva range – and 100 cubic metres in the window door frames – Wood Central understands that the volume of timber used in the building amounts to more than 6,000 tonnes of carbon, meaning the building stores as much carbon as it will emit across 50 years of operation.
“The use of the Sylva™ by Stora Enso kit of all parts allowed the large-scale building to be constructed efficiently in a dense urban environment,” said Antto Kauhanen, Business Development Manager for Stora Enso’s Wood Products Division: “It took only 171 just-in-time deliveries and seven months for more than 2,000 bespoke load-bearing wooden elements to be installed on-site.”
Located on the edge of the Helsinki seaside – where temperatures often dip below freezing in winter, the new building features a special two-layer building facade – with the outer layer made from a mix of glass, metal, natural stone, and cross-laminated timber features, extensively behind in the inner layer:
Inside timber is the dominant material, embodying a strong sense of Nordic nature. The centre point of the building’s fit-out is an eye-catching hall with a round skylight, complete with a circular wooden bench—all constructed from a fresh birch grove.
“We have a long tradition of wooden construction buildings in Finland, but larger-scale examples in urban environments live few,” Ms Anttinen said, who said the project “shows the potential of working in a demanding context with clients, partners and builders that understood, supported and pushed forward not only our design vision but also our common goals to research and test the new type of large-scale wooden constructions.”
Developed by Varma—one of Finland’s largest real estate investors with a portfolio of EUR 5.6 billion—the new project is part of a growing push to build more Helskini buildings out of wood:
In July, Wood Central revealed that Wood City, a new quarter built in Jätkäsaari, on the outskirts of Helsinki, is part of a growing push by developers to switch from traditional steel-and-concrete building systems to hybrid timber systems to meet the requirements of the EU’s taxonomy.
What is the EU Taxonomy, and why is it driving timber buildings?
One of the major elements of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (Taxonomy Regulation) is the introduction of a classification system to determine what is considered an “environmentally sustainable economic activity”, known more broadly as EU taxonomy.
“We anticipate developers and investors will closely align themselves with the EU taxonomy framework as part of their green transition,” according to leading Irish legal firm A & L Goodbody. “The construction industry has a significant role to play in decarbonising the construction and real estate sectors,” adding that “the construction industry is not only considered the largest consumer of raw materials globally, but also the largest consumer of high emission raw materials including concrete and steel.”
Whilst not mandatory, “alignment with EU taxonomy will ensure development and investment are directed towards sustainable projects and activities. In the construction industry, examples of economic activities that may be assessed for alignment with EU taxonomy (that is, whether or not the economic activity is economically sustainable) include a developer developing an office block or apartments, a purchaser purchasing such asset, or an investor lending into a construction project.”
- Click on this special feature for more information about the EU taxonomy and its impact on European development.