In Finland, CLT structures have recently proven especially popular in buildings for education. For Philip Tidwell, the award-winning Hopealaakso Daycare Centre by AFKS architects carries traces of issues that designers have to solve when new material is integrated into conventional systems of design and construction.
The design of a student housing block to be built on a cramped plot in the University of Helsinki’s Kumpula campus had to take into account, among other things, traffic noise, pollution, the scale of existing campus architecture and large differences in ground height.