The schools of the future are creative, calm environments built to help students thrive as they learn. They’re also made of wood.

Over the last 20 years, a revolution has been taking place within the construction industry. Massive-engineered wood elements like CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) and LVL (Laminated Veneer Lumber), are allowing us to build higher and larger than ever before. After over one hundred years with concrete and steel, wood is back in town.

In a post-pandemic world, the requirements being placed on office spaces have changed. For a start, today’s modern office needs to be more attractive than the home environment. There needs to be a reason to go there. 

Sustainable housing is about more than living in a low-carbon home. It’s about feeling good and sleeping well in a pleasant environment. Modern wood architecture lets designers do both. 

As children between the ages of seven and 14 spend 90% of their time indoors, with the majority of that time at school, creating healthy learning environments is crucial. Wood has a positive impact on health and wellbeing, as well as a lower carbon footprint – achieving reductions of up to 75% of CO2 emissions compared to traditional construction materials.

In the developed world, around 90% of our time is spent indoors. In recent times, this has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and wellbeing in indoor environments is more important than ever. 

The life cycle of wood has other benefits besides sustainable use of materials: when wood is used for construction, wood can increase the well-being of people spending time in the buildings. Biophilic building designs using wood enhance health and well-being in indoor environments, and make us feel closer to nature.

In 2020, the Finnish Ministry of the Environment set new targets aimed to increase the use of wood in public buildings in Finland. The effect of these national targets is already clearly visible in Finnish public construction, with many new educational building projects starting in early 2021. Stora Enso will supply solid wood elements to a new wooden school in Helsinki and a kindergarten in Tuusula, the largest massive wood kindergarten in Finland to date.

One of the largest wooden buildings in the world is being built in Singapore with CLT by Stora Enso.

There is a positive force for change underway. It’s helping combat climate change. It’s making buildings healthier places to be.

Stora Enso is the presenting sponsor of FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany. During the games, which take between February 23 and March 7, Stora Enso provides renewable products and innovations made from wood to contribute to a world-class sustainable and climate-friendly event. 

In the middle of the Singapore Management University (SMU) campus, rises a brand new education facility – SMU Connexion that seamlessly bonds CLT (by Stora Enso) to the building’s steel frame.

Calculatis by Stora Enso is a timber design tool for engineers. Efficient and fully web-based, Calculatis allows you to analyse structural elements in products such as CLT, LVL and much more.

Wooden buildings are on the rise in the US and Stora Enso is able to enter the market with its cross laminated timber (CLT) product complying with the International Building Code® (IBC) that is necessary for the US American market as of 2021.

CLT360+ by Stora Enso is a mobile app that helps you manage construction projects more efficiently. Save installation time, reduce errors at the building site and streamline the installation process.

What if you could click a button and find out what the air quality in your home is right now? Or design your new home so well that there would be zero waste during its construction? HEAL, a joint effort between Stora Enso Wood Products and Finnish start-up Trä Group, could make it happen.

There is a brand new nine story office building on King Street in Brisbane, Australia. 25 King is built with CLT, supplied by Stora Enso, and engineered and processed by Lendlease. 25 King is Australia’s tallest engineered timber office building, with a total floor area of 14 921 square metres.