Housing Two otherwise identical apartment buildings are being built in Turku, but one is made of wood and the other of concrete – Pledge Times

The purpose of the houses to be built in Hirvensalo, Turku, is to compare the climate effects.

To Turku there are two apartment buildings on the rise that differ only in their materials: one is made of wood, the other of concrete.

The floor plans and apartment areas of both houses are identical. In addition, they are located on the same plot, so the conditions are the same. There are good conditions for comparison, says the CEO of Mangrove in Turku, which specializes in ecological housing construction. Antti Lundstedt.

The houses will be built in Hirvensalo for the City of Turkus rental housing company ICT Asunto, and will include 82 rental apartments.

Construction work is underway. The houses are estimated to be completed in November 2021 and will be built with two different work teams.

The two of you carbon footprint and carbon handprint calculations have been utilized in the design of the new apartment building. They investigate the climate impacts during construction and life cycle.

According to VTT Technical Research Center of Finland, the carbon footprint of a concrete apartment building is 75 per cent larger than that of a wooden apartment building. The comparison included the foundation, bottom floor, exterior and partition walls, midsole and top floor, stairs, windows, doors and balconies.

In this project, we take the research further and take into account, in addition to building elements, the behavior of materials, in-service maintenance, occupant satisfaction, and the carbon footprint of buildings, which in turn lowers the carbon footprint, says Lundstedt.

The results will be reported more comprehensively throughout the life cycle of the buildings, ie also after completion. At the same time, residents experiences of, for example, indoor air and sound insulation are studied.

Mangroves responsible foreman Veli-Matti Toivonen (left) and CEO Antti Lundstedt.Picture: Piritta Fors

Mangrove has built numerous buildings across Finland, the design of which has assessed both the carbon footprint and the carbon handprint.

The best way to reduce the carbon footprint and increase the carbon footprint of the entire life cycle of a building and building is to take them as design starting points and construction goals.

Hirvensalo will be Mangroves first wooden apartment building, but there are already several similar ones on the design table. The Hirvensalo wooden house is built of clt elements, ie multilayer boards, which consist of cross-glued solid wood.

In the wooden apartment building, the design time was about a third longer. We have done concrete projects in the past, so we knew the details better, says the responsible foreman, Mangroves project manager Veli-Matti Toivonen.

In addition to planning, the ecological way of operating is reflected in site operations and recycling arrangements.

Its a big cultural change. In the orientation, we emphasize the responsibility of employees, and different wastes have their own, carefully labeled pallets. For example, due to the higher amount of packaging waste in the finishing phase, a waste compactor enters the construction site. And every employee knows that if only one paint can is hit on the wrong stage, for example, the full price of expensive municipal waste will go from the stage.

New according to the design data, the carbon footprint of a wooden apartment building is about 8.5 percent smaller than that of its concrete double. The carbon handprint of the positive climate effects, on the other hand, is about three times that of a concrete house.

Wood acts as a better carbon sink. Still, it must be remembered that concrete is also needed, which means that both materials are important, says Toivonen.

There are few differences in the foundations of the houses. A wooden house could be built on the foundations of a concrete house but not the other way around.Picture: Piritta Fors

According to him, the concrete benchmarks for the builder are the balcony tiles, the facade and the details of the windows.

In addition, there is sprinkling in the apartments in the wooden apartment building, Toivonen says about fire protection.

Mangrove has also estimated that weather protection will double the cost of maintaining a wooden apartment building site.

Managing director According to Lundstedt, a comparison of about 500 sites showed that the climate impact of Mangrove sites is about 20 percent lower.

District heating has been selected for the Turku apartment building project.

Based on the calculations, geothermal energy would have reduced life cycle climate emissions by another ten percent.

According to the low-carbon calculation method being developed at the Ministry of the Environment, the net climate impact of a wooden apartment building is significantly lower than that of a concrete apartment building. Lundstedt says that calculated in this way, the net climate impact of the whole is pretty close to zero.

The more wooden apartment buildings we can build, the more concrete we can use.

Fact

Founded in 1994, a domestic family business.

Developed in 25 years from construction consulting tasks to the construction of terraced and apartment buildings.

In addition to the Turku region, operations in the Uusimaa, Western Finland and Pirkanmaa regions.

Net sales last year EUR 20.48 million, profit for the financial year EUR 1.34 million. Net sales increased by 68.1 percent.

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Housing Two otherwise identical apartment buildings are being built in Turku, but one is made of wood and the other of concrete - Pledge Times