Photo courtesy Metsä Wood
Metsäliitto has announced Mass Timber Mid-Rise (MTMR), a graduate architecture design studio at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) Department of Architecture, is contributing to its Open Source Wood initiative. Launched in 2017 by Metsä Wood, the Finnish pulp and paper group’s wood products arm, the initiative is a call to action for architects, designers, and engineers to share innovation and contribute knowledge about largescale modular wood construction.
Open Source Wood aims to speed up the growth of modular wood construction by streamlining the availability of wood element designs. Recently, the group at MIT, along with those from Metsä Wood and students from Aalto University, participated in a 24-hour Open Source Wood Hackathon in Finland to generate new idea ideas relating to timber building.
“At a moment when many coastal U.S. cities face the challenges of urbanization, testing ideas for green urban hybrid housing is more essential than ever,” said Andrew Scott, professor at MIT Architecture. “Our MTMR studio explores new models of mid-rise affordable housing utilizing mass-timber technologies and Metsä Wood’s Open Source Wood initiative provides us valuable insight into wood construction and prefabrication technologies.”
