Young Architects Worldwide Create Solutions for Urbanisation in the "City Above the City" Competition

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ESPOO, Finland, Nov. 1, 2016 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

Metsa Wood's competition has inspired architects worldwide to design wooden

extensions to city centres. Entries from 40 countries proposed wooden solutions

to the challenges of urbanization. Winning designs were made to New York,

Shanghai and Tampere, Finland.

To view the Multimedia News Release, please click:

http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7969851-metsa-wood-competition-city-above-the-city/

Architects from 40 countries created their Plan B for urbanisation using wood

(Kerto(R) LVL - laminated veneer lumber) as the main material. The task was to

design a wooden extension to an existing urban building. The entries were

designed for 69 cities worldwide, including Sidney, Shanghai, New York, Berlin,

Paris and London. The competition was organised by Metsa Wood.

"Construction must become sustainable and cities must stay liveable. I am happy

that so many architects share this view, especially the younger generation,"

says Michael Green from MGA architects and DBR Design Build Research, who

chairs the jury. "The entries were innovative and added value to both the

building and the community."

"The designs were realistic and demonstrated a good understanding of LVL as a

building material," says Professor Stefan Winter, who holds the Chair of Timber

Construction and Structural Engineering at the Technical University of Munich.

"Because of its lightness and fast construction time, Kerto LVL is an ideal

material for this challenge."

"Building wooden extensions in existing communities can be a significant

solution for urbanisation. Instead of demolishing communities, we could enhance

them," says Mike Kane, an architect and senior lecturer at London South Bank

University. "This competition should be seen as a catalyst for future debate on

sustainable and progressive cities worldwide."

Winners from different parts of the world

"Urbanisation has increased interest in building with wood. The potential for

timber extensions is large - over 100 million square metres in Germany alone,"

says Mikko Saavalainen, SVP of Business Development at Metsa Wood.

Winners received awards in two categories: small-scale intervention and

large-scale intervention. The total value of the prizes is EUR 35,000.

First prize winners in the small-scale intervention category were Nile

Greenberg (USA) for his design for New York and Alma Studio (Spain) for their

design for Shanghai. The runners-up were Superspace (Turkey) with a design for

Istanbul and Sigurd Larsen Design & Architecture (Germany) with a design for

Berlin.

First prize winners in the large-scale intervention category were Lisa

Voigtlander (Germany) and SungBok Song (Korea) for their design for Tampere,

Finland. The runners-up were Basic Architects (Australia) with a design for

Perth, L Arkkitehdit (Finland) with a design for Helsinki, Giuseppe De Marinis

Gallo and Gianluca Gnisci (Italy) with a design for New York and Kim Min Jae

Architects (Hong Kong) with a design for Hong Kong.

See the complete works at: planb.metsawood.com

Images: http://databank.metsagroup.com/l/QXN_pcPcgdjH

Metsa Wood provides competitive and environmentally friendly wood products for

construction, industrial customers and distributor partners. We manufacture

products from Nordic wood, a sustainable raw material of premium quality. Our

sales in 2015 were EUR 0.9 billion, and we employ about 2,000 people. Metsa

Wood is part of Metsa Group.

Contact for media:

Henni Rousu, Marketing Manager, Metsa Wood, mobile: +358(0) 405548388,

henni.rousu@metsagroup.com

For press information, please contact:

Matt Trace, Director, Defero Communications, t. +44(0)7828663988

matt@deferouk.co.uk

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161101/434735 )

Source: Metsa Wood