Construction Has Started on Stora Enso’s New Head Office in Helsinki

Helsinki, Finland, will soon be the home of the Katajanokan Laituri, according to Premier Construction News (3-21-23). The new building will house Stora Enso’s head office, a high-quality Solo Sokos Hotel Pier 4 hotel, as well as open spaces for the city’s residents, including a café, restaurant, and conference facilities.

The construction project has been underway for the past year, with demolition and excavation work being completed over the past several months. The project has now reached the state where the first massive wood elements have been installed on site.

The Katajanokan Laituri building is being built with applications from the newly launched Sylva™ by Stora Enso. Sylva is a massive wood building kit comprising pre-manufactured, custom-made applications delivered just-in-time to the building site. The load-bearing column and beam frame are made from laminated veneer lumber (LVL) produced and delivered from Stora Enso’s Varkaus mill. The floors, walls, roof, and stairs are made of cross-laminated timber (CLT) that come from the company’s Gruvön mill which is located in Sweden. The wooden building will be finished with a façade that will be constructed predominately of glass, and the load-bearing structure of the prefabricated façade elements are produced in Varkaus.

When completed, the finished timber structure will contain approximately 7,600 m3 of massive wood supplied by Stora Enso, of which 6,00 m3 will be CLT and 1,600 m3 will be LVL.