-Cross-laminated timber stimulates regeneration in architecture!

The student accommodation designed by Swedish Tengbom Architects has been one of the most popular exhibition objects at WOOD 2013. Now it is attracting media attention from around the world! The ten square metres experimental house has not only been reviewed by Swedish newspapers, radio and TV. In a few weeks it has been published on some 260 web sites world wide to date, and this number is increasing. In Virserum it will be on display until 8 December. Some 22 units will be built in student city Lund by AF-bostäder. The construction kit, delivered by Martinsons, consists of cross-laminated timber.

Mikael Lindberg, Martinsons VD:
So what is the fuss all about? There’s a great need for student accommodation in Sweden, where many students are forced to wait ages for their first home. Martinsons and Tengbom have shown both an exciting new way of thinking and that living in wooden accommodation is both compact and resource efficient.

What is the significance of using cross-laminated timber? What possibilities are offered by the material and industrial processes? In Sweden we have a strong tradition of living in wooden homes. That cross-laminated timber keeps it shape and is easy to process, provides great and often new opportunities for exciting solutions, from simpler, smaller constructions to great halls and multi-storey apartment flats. Few materials offer the architect such freedom as cross-laminated timber, clearly illustrated in the Tengbom project – not only is it small in size and made from wood, the shape and layout interacts in a dynamic fashion. Almost any shape can be milled industrially. When you build big, the possibilities are even greater. Cross-laminated timber stimulates regeneration of architecture.

Cross-laminated timber has been used for high-rises in Växjö and Stockholm. But the material isn’t associated with low-budget projects. Is this a market for you? We don’t see the projects as low-budget. Conversely, the total costs for students are reduced thanks to the use of space and the layout.

Links:
http://www.tv4.se/nyhetsmorgon/klipp/h%C3%A4r-%C3%A4r-sveriges-minsta-studentbostad-2433605
http://properti.kompas.com/read/2013/09/06/1126468/Solusi.Cerdas.Hunian.yang.Cocok.dengan.Kantong.Mahasiswa.
http://www.ecodesenvolvimento.org/posts/2013/setembro/sera-que-casas-de-madeira-podem-ser-solucao-para?tag=arquitetura-e-construcao
http://www.fancyshare.com/2013/09/12/10%E3%8E%A1-student-apartment/
http://towood.ru/kvartira-iz-dereva/

Virserum Art Museum
Kyrkogatan 34
570 80 Virserum
Sweden
+46 495-315 06
info@virserumskonsthall.com
www.virserumskonsthall.com