Metsä Wood Launches a Groundbreaking Platform for Open Source Wood

WASHINGTON, May 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Open Source Wood initiative was launched in June 2017 by Metsä Wood in order to accelerate growth in urban wood construction. The new opensourcewood.com offers a platform for knowledge sharing and collaboration. The service is free and welcomes all organisations and individuals.

The Open Source Wood initiative aims to speed up the growth of modular wood construction by making innovative ideas freely available for all. Only a fraction of urban construction today is wood, partly because the knowledge about using wood in construction has been difficult to find. Open Source Wood gathers innovations in modular wood construction from all corners of the world and makes them available for all, free of charge.

"In June 2017, we asked the professionals of wood construction to share their innovations, and we are very pleased with the outcome," says Esa Kaikkonen, Executive Vice President at Metsä Wood. "It is important to increase the design options for architects and engineers, and to make the design process easy. Open collaboration can speed up this development in our industry".

Opensourcewood.com has multiple functions. The users can:

• FIND elements, modules and components reviewed by Metsä Wood experts
• SHARE innovation and get feedback from experts
• CONNECT with other professionals
• GET support from wood construction professionals
• CONTRIBUTE as writers, photographers and hackathon organizers.

"The Open Source Wood initiative welcomes all materials, producers and users. The objective is not to use wood everywhere, but to make wooden and hybrid structures a serious option globally," Kaikkonen continues. "Thirty per cent of global CO2 emissions come from construction(1), and building with wood can be the solution."

Metsä Wood award

Metsä Wood is rewarding innovative element and modular designs using Kerto® LVL (laminated veneer lumber). These awards are typically 5 000 or 10 000 €. The winners so far are:

• Maskerade, offsite manufactured wood elements designed by Maarten van der Breggen,
• Cliphut, modular building system designed by Thomaz Vieira, Tomas Mena and Maria Wilkens,
• Kokoon, pre-fabricated and transportable housing modules designed by Aalto University's Wood Program Studio

Metsä Wood will continue to reward the best LVL based designs as they come in.

Learn more about Open Source Wood and how you can participate at www.opensourcewood.com

Join the initiative.

Contact: [email protected]

1. 7 UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative (SBCI) (2009). "Buildings and climate change. Summary for decision makers". UNEP SBCI: 3. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme.

Images: https://databank.metsagroup.com/l/pbRtm7Mvm2S5

For more information, please contact:

Viivi Kylämä, Marketing Manager, Metsä Wood, +358-40-820-9850,

[email protected]

www.metsawood.com

Metsä Wood provides competitive and environmentally friendly wood products for construction, industrial customers and distributor partners. We manufacture products from northern wood, a sustainable raw material of premium quality. Our sales in 2017 were EUR 0.5 billion, and we employ about 1,400 people. Metsä Wood is part of Metsä Group.

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