Stora Enso has launched a suite of tools to support developers of the UK’s industrial buildings to create more attractive, productive and sustainable buildings, with spans ranging from 12 to 36m, from small workshops to large retail sheds and warehouses. Stora Enso’s timber industrial buildings allow developers to cut embodied emissions by up to 30% while also benefiting from highly modular and flexible designs. Crucially, the new design tools incorporate a high degree of pre-fabrication, allowing for accelerated construction timelines, and can be configured for easy disassembly and reassembly as needs change. With available UK warehouse space estimated at less than 50million sq ft with the potential to run out within a year, thanks to the pandemic and rise in online shopping, timber industrial buildings offer a way for developers to rapidly respond to market dynamics while also improving sustainability performance.
Sebastián Hernandez, R&D Manager for Building Concepts at Stora Enso comments: “Industrial buildings are at the nexus of a number of megatrends in the UK. On the one hand, we have the moral and policy imperative to decarbonise our building stock; on the other, we have the planned renaissance of British manufacturing and shift to online shopping increasing demand for these types of structures. “Not only can wooden industrial buildings enable companies to respond to these trends, but by moving away from monotone grey sheet metal and concrete, they can allow us to create better working environments for UK employees and improve the increase the quality of retail and industrial parks up and down the country.”
To support adoption of engineered timber for industrial buildings, Stora Enso has created a source hub for architects and developers that includes fully interactive 3D models and technical specifications of eight different base types for different industrial buildings. These are pre-optimized for the most standard and common industrial buildings we see in the market and can used as a basis for designing bespoke concepts.
The industrial concept is the latest in a series of building concepts designed to support the construction industry in adopting mass engineered timber to improve sustainability and building performance.
Source: www.storaenso.com
