As a construction material, wood has five fascinating strengths.
Based on these strengths, Wood Wonders presents building concepts and wood structures that are carbon-neutral, recyclable and versatile. The exhibition also introduces research projects that in recent years have engineered the chemical properties of wood.
Wood works wonders.
#woodwonders
Wood Wonders was designed by a multidisciplinary team with members from three of Aalto's Schools, and it opened in entrance hall 2B at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport on 5 February 2020. The exhibition is part of a long-term passenger experience collaboration with Finavia.
The Finnish Ministry of the Environment has supported the exhibition.
Exhibition materials:
Metsä Wood
Versowood
Fiskarsin laatupuu
Tikkurila Oyj
Research
School of Arts, Design and Architecture
Pekka Heikkinen: Architecture
Heidi Turunen: Cellulose products
Matti Kuittinen: Environmental impacts
Karola Sahi and Mikko Paakkanen: Design
Ville Kokkonen: Interior Architecture
School of Engineering
Gerhard Fink: Wooden structures
School of Chemical Engineering
Lauri Rautkari: Wood material science
Mark Hughes: Wood technology
Monika Österberg: Bioproduct chemistry
Exhibition concept and design
Laura Zubillaga and Pekka Heikkinen
Exhibition construction
Laura Zubillaga, Pekka Heikkinen, Josh Krute, Dario Vidal, Darren Bratton, Jari Simanainen, Hannu Paajanen
Sound design
Antti Ikonen
Graphic design
Cvijeta Miljak
Curating
Outi Turpeinen
Communications
Tiina Toivola
The exhibition photos: Anne Kinnunen
(Click to enlarge the images)
According to the Natural Resources Institute Finland, 75 per cent of Finland's surface area is forested.
There are, on average, 12,500 trees for every Finnish citizen.
When used thoughtfully, wood helps us reduce our carbon footprint, as wood-bound carbon is stored in buildings even for centuries.
Wood is a renewable material. If all the buildings constructed in Finland each year were made of wood, the amount of wood needed for the construction would grow back in ten hours.
In addition to environmental aspects, wood is also a luxurious, attractive and versatile building material.
Aalto's Wood Program takes up building tasks as experiments that can be used to study and explore various materials and methods of building.
As a material, wood is valuable, unpretentious and vivid. People have a natural desire to touch wooded surfaces because wood feels good. In buildings, wood cladding buffers moisture, which in turn reduces the need for air conditioning and thus also energy consumption.
According to the Wood2New and WoodLife studies, wood-clad interior areas feel +2°C warmer than those clad with other materials, which reduces the need for heating. The 1.5 Degree Lifestyles study calculated that a decrease in indoor temperature by two degrees would reduce the annual carbon footprint by approximately 2%.
Housing, mainly heating and air conditioning, is responsible for approximately 25% of our carbon dioxide emissions. The smart design of structures and indoor spaces can significantly reduce energy requirements.
Photos of interiors: Anne Kinnunen
In terms of the climate, it's important to extend the life cycle of wood products: to design wood products that have a long life cycle and that can be recycled. Some old wooden buildings have stood for hundreds of years.
New buildings should be designed in such a way that they could be used for a longer time, repaired and reused.
Sustainable wooden building concepts
Kokoon offers a compact solution for temporary accommodation in an urban environment.
The modular living system can be used as temporary housing for various short-term needs: refugees, students starting their autumn term or residents undergoing plumbing replacement. Once the need for accommodation has ended, the building can be moved to a place where it is needed.
Liina is a temporary and ecological shelter that can be used in humanitarian crises and can be built in as little as six hours.
The number of refugees is expected to increase to over one billion by 2050. The Liina transitional shelter is a temporary building for cold climates, but it can be used in humanitarian crises around the world. Designed and built by Aalto University's Wood Program students, Liina is mainly made of Finnish wood and wood-based materials, and it provides a stylish and sustainable solution to a global problem.
The renovation of Finlandia Hall is set to start in early 2022. Finlandia Hall will continue as a conference and event centre throughout the renewal project, and some of the activities will be organised in the temporary facilities. The design of the temporary facilities has been developed in cooperation with students and teachers at Aalto University Department of Architecture's Wood Program and Building Design Studio.
The temporary facilities are in accordance with the wood construction and circular economy goals of the City of Helsinki. After this use, sections of the building can be moved and altered for further use as temporary facilities by schools and daycare centres, for example. The estimated service life of the building is 20-30 years.
Designing for life cycle and disassembly
Wood is a temporal carbon storage, so prolonging the life cycle of wood products can contribute to mitigating climate change. Furthermore, the implementation of Design for Disassembly (DfD) principles in constructions might increase the reuse of wood products.
The life cycle of buildings spans from the planning of land use and construction to the actual construction phase and on to the reuse, demolition and recycling of buildings.
The Wood Material Technology group, headed by Professor Mark Hughes, provides teaching and conducts research in the area of wood technology.
The InFutureWood project studies the benefits of applying circular economy principles to wood construction. It investigates the possibilities to reuse or upcycle wood recovered from construction and demolition projects.
The SMARTA Wood project develops and utilises data sets and tools that support decision-making to enable the most sustainable and efficient use of wood to be made. SMARTA is a Climate-KIC demonstrator project that focuses on using Tool for Sustainability Impact Assessment to assess the sustainability of wood in comparison to concrete construction, and it is carried out in collaboration with Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.
With a large proportion of the buildings, infrastructure and energy systems of the world due to be built or renewed in the next 15 years, the construction field holds tremendous potential for developing a sustainable society.
Globally accessible and easily adoptable, Decarbonize Design is an online course with supporting curricular materials for anyone working in constructed environments: designers, architects and engineers as well as material manufacturers, construction companies and policy makers responsible for project planning and construction-related decisions. The module consists of video lectures and templates for teachers and a guidebook.
Wood still has a lot of untapped potential for new types of products that can be used to replace harmful and non-renewable materials in construction.
Wood has superpowers: new amazing properties are continually being discovered in wood, wood fibre (cellulose) and the fibre binder (lignin). The chemically engineered wood-based products can replace plastics, adhesives, solvents and other environmentally harmful substances.
In the future, new types of bio-based cellulose structures, such as nanocellulose, have promising applications in organic paints, water-repellent surface treatments and acoustic elements. They may also replace some of the stone-based materials in construction.
Casting is not yet a common method for wooden materials. The moulding technique does not produce waste during shaping, and it can utlise recycled sawdust. Wet nanocellulose was mixed with sawdust and dyes, with nanocellulose working as an adhesive when the material dries out.
Design: Heidi Turunen
Nanocellulose was dyed with food colours and used as a paint on different wooden surfaces, such as pinewood or on birch plywood. The wood-based coating feels warm to touch. The water tolerance requires additional research, but the paint slightly protects wooden surfaces. VTT has also tested the paint for fire-resistance successfully.
Team: Heidi Turunen from Aalto University with Vesa Kunnari, Timo Kaljunen, Jaakko Pere from VTT
The prototypes use nanocellulose as an adhesive that glues together sheets of paper. The board was laminated by pressing and is bio-based, biodegradable and contains no other ingredients than wood-based materials.
The bending strength of the cellulose board is better than chip, gypsum or even MDF board. Cellulose board can be patterned, painted or printed, and it is recyclable among newspaper waste. In the future, it could be used in door structures or for interior and furniture applications. Further research is needed for material properties, production and water tolerance.
Team: Heidi Turunen at Aalto University with Vesa Kunnari, Timo Kaljunen, Jaakko Pere from VTT
Soft cellulose foam was pressed for stiff boards that could be used as acoustic elements. Its bending stiffness is better than commercial peeled plasterboard. Board can be post-processed in various ways: pattern pressing, printing and water jet cutting.
Team: Heidi Turunen at Aalto University and Jani Lehmonen at VTT
The Bioproduct Chemistry group develops renewable, high added-value materials based on wood polymers, like lignocellulosics (cellulose and lignin), and the research is especially focused on understanding interfacial properties.
Lignin is an excellent alternative as a replacement for fossil materials. It is created as a byproduct of pulping, and it can partly or completely replace phenol formaldehyde resin adhesives used in plywood, hardboard, chipboard and laminate. It can also be used in functional coatings, which improve weather durability. Lignin can also be used a raw material for carbon fibre and in production of bioplastics and liquid fuels.
Novel lignin structures may solve many of the current problems in the industrial utilisation of lignin. The LignoSphere project (2019-2021) aims to convert industrial lignin side-stream into value-added-products. The concept converts lignin into lignin nanosphere particles (“lignospheres”), which can be used in many applications, such as wood adhesives, wood coatings and composites, thus replacing toxic and petroleum-based chemicals.
Contact: Professor Monika Österberg (Bioproduct Chemistry group)
The WoodLife project (2013-2017) developed natural, water repellent and breathable coatings for wood based on carnauba wax particles. The coating is extremely thin and retains the moisture buffering capability of wood but still protects the wood from water efficiently. This increases the use of wood in buildings and can reduce the need for heating.
Forest wood used in buildings can bind carbon for centuries. Wood is a strong and versatile building material that improves indoor air quality, reduces the need for heating and air conditioning – and provides pleasure.
The Wood Wonders exhibition to be opened at Helsinki Airport on the 5th of February will show passengers the innovations related to wood construction and display the sector’s latest developments.
The Wood Program is a one-year program of study that focuses on wood architecture and industrial building. The program is intended for architects, engineers and other students with a background in design and strong interest in timber construction.
Aalto University promotes creativity in all disciplines and communities. One of our strategic targets is to renew society through art, creativity and design. We are a forerunner in combining art and creative practices with research and education.