Aproposal entitled “Puukruunu (Wood Crown)” has won a competition organised by the Urban and Environmental Services department of the City of Oulu. The winning entry was submitted by Puurakentajat Group Oy and Schauman Arkkitehdit Helsinki Oy (ARCO).

The design competition ran from April to December 2022 and called for a 16-storey wooden apartment building to be built in the 2025 housing fair area in Oulu’s Hartanselänranta district. Organised by the City of Oulu, the Suomen Asuntomessut (Finnish Housing Fair) Cooperative, the Ministry of the Environment, and the Finnish Association of Architects (SAFA), the competition had the particular aim of developing wooden architecture and construction technology and of investigating low-carbon solutions for high-rise wooden construction. It is also an opportunity to showcase solutions to some of the design challenges of demanding sites and thereby increase the construction industry’s awareness of industrial, low-carbon, and large scale solutions for wooden construction.

The call for proposals not only aspired to find technical construction solutions for innovative wooden architecture and structural engineering, but also sought apartment designs and materials that could promote low-carbon construction. The organisers hoped that entries would help develop modern wood construction with targeted building engineering solutions and imaginative use of energy-efficient materials and design approaches that promote the circular economy and make building and apartment layouts more easy to repurpose as needed.

Read more: https://www.ouka.fi/oulu/hartaanselanranta/puukerrostalon-arkkitehtikilpailu

Read the article in Finnish here.