Metsä Pavilion will be assembled in Tokyo to host Finland’s Olympic and Paralympic teams during the Summer Olympics of 2020. The Pavilion is made entirely of Kerto® LVL (laminated veneer lumber) elements, which made the construction process fast, light and green. The elements were designed to be made with industrial efficiency:

“The starting point was to optimise the material loss as small as possible”, says Project Manager Lasse Hietanen from AINS Group. “The thickness and width of beams and columns was kept the same, thus streamlining the production process.”

Hietanen is responsible for the structural design of the Metsä Pavilion. The project was an interesting one, since Japan’s strong winds and the risk of earthquakes posed a challenge to the structural design of the pavilion.

“The roof elements add rigidity to the structure and transmit the wind and potential earthquake loads through the walls to the ground,” Hietanen says.  Watch the Talking Wood video with Lasse Hietanen.