Markku Karjalainen (born in 1961) is an Architect (1988), D.Sc. (Tech.) (2002), Docent of timber construction and wood architecture (2008) and Associate professor (Architectural Construction) at the Tampere University (TAU), School of Architecture, Finland (2015 –). He has been advancing Finnish large-scale industrial timber construction (multi-story timber apartment buildings, wooden public buildings, wooden halls, and wooden bridges) full time for the past 24 years. Main work experience: Lecturer and assistant in the architectural design laboratory of the University of Oulu, Department of Architecture; 1992–1997. Project manager of the national Modern Wooden Town project and the Wood Studio at the University of Oulu, Department of Architecture; 1997–2011. Ministry of Employment and the Economy (TEM): Head of development of the national timber construction program; 2012–2015.
Topic of speech
Finnish multi-story timber frame buildings
The greatest growth potential in Finland’s timber construction lies in multi-story apartment buildings. Ever greater possibilities are opening for timber construction, as the significance of worldwide climate, environmental, and natural resource issues grow. Timber multi-story apartment building construction was started in Finland with a brief experimental construction phase in the mid-1990s. Today in Finland it is possible to design and build residential and workplace buildings as well as lodging and institutional buildings with wood frames and façades up to eight stories high. It is also possible to build timber apartment buildings over eight stories high based on analysis of functional fire design. To date (November 2019), 82 timber apartment buildings over two stories high have been built in Finland, comprising 2365 apartments. In addition, plans for new timber residential apartment buildings containing around 10,000 apartments are on the table all over Finland. There are several different types of frame systems available for timber apartment building construction, for which there is a sufficient amount of wood element production plants and manufacturing capacity in Finland.
