Free educational materials on industrial wood construction in Finnish are now available for download from Puuinfo’s website and the national teachers’ channel aoe.fi. Prepared specifically for teachers, the materials have potential applications at many different levels in the educational system.

Read the article in Finnish here.

The material spans several thousand pages and covers topics ranging from wood material theory to industrial wood products and wood technology. Topics include industrial building systems, the principles of architectural design and municipal zoning, building regulations with particular applicability to wood construction, and construction processes. Structural design has been given the most attention, and the material provides several example calculations to help students grasp the concepts. Finland’s top experts have contributed chapters on the particularities of building technology and building physics.

The section on industrial pre-fabrication touches on topics such as the processing of sawn timber and the manufacturing of construction elements, CLT panels, log structures, LVL panels and nailboard structures, as well as on available wood surface treatments and the concept of CAM manufacturing. The info on installation and on-site operations is supplemented by helpful pictures, and the standardisation and product approval processes for construction products are also explained in detail and in an illustrative manner. So far, the section on the environmental effects of wood construction has been the most popular download from the teachers’ channel. The chapter on repairing wooden buildings and using wood in repairs was written with an eye on future needs in particular, whereas the section on construction economics and project management describes what the current boundary conditions are for industrial wood construction and how the market operates. To wrap thing up, the material includes a section on wooden bridges that was produced by the Finnish Forest Centre’s project on wooden infrastructure on private roads.

In addition to teachers, the material can be extremely useful for other professionals as well. The authors are industry professionals who welcome feedback on the material. It is already in use at the Karelia University of Applied Sciences, and the reactions thus far have been positive.

The authors will continue to improve the material with the established network of educational institutions, which hopefully will expand further and find new ways to develop internationally competitive wood construction know-how.

The teaching material has been prepared over the course of 1.5 years in cooperation with Vocational College Lappia, TTS-Työtehoseura, Southeast Finland University of Applied Sciences, Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences and Tampere University, with additional help from the Federation of the Finnish Woodworking Industries, the Natural Resources Center and a few other expert organisations. The project was coordinated by Puuinfo and financed by the Ministry of the Environment.

See education material (in Finnish) here: puuinfo.fi/koulutus/ teollisen-puurakentamisenoppimateriaali- tpuuraineistot