MassTimber@MSU Travels to Finland for the Multi-State Wood Building Trade and Study Mission
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EmailSandra and George traveled to Finland this May for the multi-state wood building trade and study mission led by Business Finland, as part of a six-person Michigan delegation.
Sandra Lupien, Director of MassTimber@MSU, and George Bergeron, MassTimber@MSU Research Director, traveled to Finland this May for the multi-state wood building trade and study mission led by Business Finland, as part of a six-person Michigan delegation, including Tsz Yan Ng of Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning, University of Michigan, Anna Anderson of Lord Aeck Sargent, Anthony Askew of City On The Rise, L.L.C. , and Ben Ridderbos of ROSSETTI.
Alongside delegates from Finland’s other wood building partner states – Maine, Minnesota, Colorado, and Washington – the group 
enjoyed visiting businesses and sites along the mass timber and wood construction value chain, from forests to mills to manufacturers to buildings. The group also attended a welcome reception by officials from the City of Helsinki, met with representatives from multiple Finnish universities and companies, and made connections that will lead to collaborations with Finnish and U.S. collaborators to advance mass timber construction and manufacture.
For the second half of the Business Finland mission, delegates participated in Puuinfo Oy’s 2025 Wood Build Conference in Helsinki. Over the course of two days, which included tours visiting wooden architecture residential sites, as well as a wooden high school!
The first half of the conference featured presentations from over 18 professionals across the AEC industry, who shared updates and overviews on leading projects in wood construction and wood product research in Finland and around the world. Participants heard from Finnish companies, innovators, designers, and academics about the opportunities, successes, and challenges of advancing wood construction in Finland. Sandra and George presented on how MassTimber@MSU is working with many collaborators to grow a robust mass timber ecosystem in Michigan and the Great Lakes Region. 
Puuinfo also organized an array of wood building tours for attendees, starting with Stora Enso’s headquarters, the Katajanokan Laituri Wood Office and Hotel Building, led by Antto Kauhanen, Business Development Manager at Stora Enso.
They next day, they explored several apartment buildings featuring wood construction: Pohjoin-Pasilan Proosa, a social housing development that features affordable apartments with lots of exposed mass timber – including in the enclosed balconies; Kuninkaantammi, a two-building apartment development compares features of wood and concrete construction; and they also visited Helsinki Upper Secondary School of Natural Sciences, glulam pillars and CLT walls, beams, and slabs.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7330659766731493378
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7330980963113431044
