”There is something in wood that makes you want to touch it – and by doing so, we subconsciously transmit a sense of wellbeing through the hands to the brain.”
why, but innovation is the reason people study to become archi- tects and construction engineers.” Wood construction has received a boost from several impressive high-profile projects. Some of the Finnish buildings that have at- tracted international attention are Oodi Helsinki Central Library and the Löyly seaside sauna. From other countries, Heikkinen mentions the Metropol Parasol in Seville, Spain, although he ad- mits he is not particularly interested in huge wooden monuments, but rather in good and enduring solutions. “My most memorable experiences of wood construction come from buildings made of solid wood, where you can feel the mas- siveness, and even the scent, of wood. It is good to experience the material with senses other than sight.” Heikkinen has also been impressed by the Hamar Museum, de- signed by Sverre Fehn from Norway. The museum features curved glulam beams, combined with the stone and wood structures of an old farm building from the 1700s. “You can feel it in your bones that you are experiencing archi- tecture.” Wood tempts to touch Ingenious and original, rather than large and imposing, is an apt description of the work of Heikkinen and his students. Being able to sense the wood also plays an important role in their designs. In 2010, he and his students submitted an entry called “Luukku” to a competition on energy-efficient construction. The house was constructed in Otaniemi in Espoo and transported to Madrid in Spain for the competition. It received 200,000 visitors over the week of competition. “On the days I was there, all the visitors went around touching the wooden surfaces. There is something in wood that makes you want to touch it – and by doing so, we subconsciously transmit a sense of wellbeing through the hands to the brain.”
Fascinating material It was partly by accident that Heikkinen became a specialist in wood architecture during his studies. In a course on building repairs, he was working on a dilapidated wooden house, and his professor encouraged him to use a knife to study the condition of its structures. “I realised that wood was a material that needed to be under- stood and I set myself the goal of learning everything about wood in ten years. Now, decades later, I still have a lot to learn – but it has certainly been interesting to work with wood,” he says. After graduating as an architect in 1991, Heikkinen worked for a few years in architect offices. In 1995, he found himself teaching wood construction part-time at the Department of Architecture at what was then called Helsinki University of Technology. In 2008, he was appointed Professor of Wood Architecture. “Wood construction has remained a strong field of interest for me, because it is both tangible and responsible – especially from the perspective of sustainability these days.” Striking architecture Construction is now going through an interesting phase, Heikki nen says. Nearly every year, someone designs a wooden house that is a floor or two higher than before, constantly testing the limits. In 2022, for example, the 18-floor Mjøsa Tower in Norway will lose its position as the world’s tallest wooden apartment building to the Ascent tower in Milwaukee, US, which has 25 storeys. “Such large-scale projects demonstrate that wood has long been an industrial product and mode of construction. Mjøsa Tower showed that a lot had been learned from the previously tallest 14-floor wooden building in Bergen in Norway. Flaws had been eliminated, and good solutions had been developed,” he says. “New buildings always feature some innovation; they are never constructed exactly like their predecessors. You might wonder
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