Sourcing Novel Timber Building Concepts with Open Innovation

December 29, 2017 By IdeaConnection

To source innovative timber building designs Metsa Wood (part of the paper group Metsäliitto) invited architects, engineers and innovators to take part in the world’s first Open Source Wood Hackathon, which took place recently in Nantes, France.

Participants formed three multidisciplinary teams to generate novel wood designs using a type of laminated veneer lumber.

“This is the first Open Source Wood Hackathon, but also a pioneering event in the wood construction industry, “said Mikko Saavalainen, SVP Business Development at Metsa Wood.

Aims

The open innovation challenge had several aims, including:

To increase the use of wood in construction

To connect local wood construction industries with global knowledge to facilitate innovation

Winning Idea and Other Concepts

The teams spent an entire day ideating and problem solving around different construction problems. The end result was three innovative modular wood solutions of which Kert’eau was named the winner. This was a design for floating residential units in coastal and riverside areas.

Each floating home has a reinforced concrete hull with water ballast on top of which are three layers of constructions. Modules and building kits can be prefabricated in mobile industrial facilities such as ships

The hackathon generated two other novel concepts. They were:

SafeCube – a quick and easy way to build temporary housing shelters that can be used to house people relocated after storms or other natural disasters. Each SafeCube can fit into one maritime container and the parts are light enough to be carried by two people.

Kerto Ski – a modular design concept for light buildings in the Sahara desert. The homes can be easily moved and then filled with sand to provide stability in windy environments.

 

Kert’eau – the winning concept

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