Welcome to the world’s northern-most mass timber construction project – the Earth Observatory -a geological research base in the Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard on the archipelago of West Spitsbergen in the remote arctic waters off of Norway. One of the best things about building in mass timber is that it is so light (five times lighter than concrete but with all the same strength) you can build in these hard to reach places in the world. You can also do it much faster which is good news when you are building in −16 °C (3 °F)!

This base consists of four buildings which are connected by corridors above ground. Apart from the concrete foundations, only Stora Enso CLT in industrial visible quality is used for this project. Due to the northern location, as it was winter during construction of the base, it was dark 24 hours a day. However, thanks to Stora Enso’s CLT solid timber construction system, the erection of the building was safe and, above all, fast, as prefabricated CLT elements were transported to the construction site, resulting in lower construction costs. These advantages provided the main reasons for the decision to build with Stora Enso CLT.