Ula Nylander is a participant of the Nordic Wood festival held at the Moscow Central House of Architects, organized by the ARCHIWOOD project with the support of the Union of Moscow Architects (CMA), Project Baltia magazine, as well as with partner participation of HONKA, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway in Russia, the Velsky Les company and the "Rules of Communication" agency.
Archi.ru: You teach at Chalmers University in Gothenburg. Are you teaching architecture students about wood construction, or should they learn it firsthand?
Ola Nylander: Students learn the basics of wood construction in their first year: it is very easy to understand its principles on the example of a small house, and for Sweden, where there are a lot of such buildings, the most natural method of teaching architecture.
What is the current situation with timber construction in Sweden?
It is developing: bridges and multi-storey buildings are built from wood, but so far concrete and steel remain the most popular materials for such purposes. But nevertheless, in the last 10-15 years, wood has become a real alternative in the construction of sports complexes, shopping centers, etc. If there is an opportunity to invest a little more money in construction, then it is worth choosing a tree, because, among other things, it has a completely different aesthetic value.
But in the very nature of the tree there are limitations, because not everything can be built from it?
Of course, there is a fire safety problem, although you can do without chemicals if you are building from solid wood: the timber burns outside, and the fire stops, and the steel beam will surely collapse at 800 degrees. And therefore, in the presence of an automatic water fire extinguishing system, the risk is significantly reduced. But the problem of acoustics remains: it is very difficult to solve it in multi-storey buildings, you have to lay walls and floors with plasterboard and other materials, which largely negates the advantages of a wooden building. In addition, of course, it is impossible to build a 400 m long road bridge out of wood, but for pedestrian bridges this is an excellent solution.
What about aging wood? Sometimes even special processing does not help, and the building “loses its appearance” over the years.
On the contrary, one of the main advantages of wood is its aesthetic "stability": it ages beautifully, in contrast to plastic and other materials that look good only at first. The gray facade of the old wooden house is lovely. But we must immediately put this perspective into the project: the change in the color and texture of the tree over time. In addition, the tree requires a minimum of maintenance, so it is better not to paint such a house, otherwise you will have to do it every year. Now in the Swedish construction industry there is a debate about how to reduce the cost of construction as much as possible. But no one is considering the construction in conjunction with the further maintenance of the building: if we take a period of 50 years, then the actual budget of the project will be only a small part of the total costs. With this approach, the tree turns out to be the most profitable material: minimum maintenance, aesthetic "stability" and "stability" are common: it is a renewable resource, and new trees will grow instead of felled ones in 50 years.
Since wood construction is so beneficial from any point of view, can we expect the imminent emergence of new urban areas and villages entirely of wood, as was the case several centuries ago?
I believe that each material has its own positive qualities, and if everything is built from wood, it will be just boring. Therefore, it is better to combine concrete buildings and wooden ones, especially since the tastes of all people are different. But so far there are too few wooden structures: it is worth building more of them.
What is your forecast for timber construction in the near future?
I think modern wood facade panels will be created. So far, they are made in the traditional way, which takes a very long time, but the Swedish industry is now working to solve this problem.
What kind of wooden structures are a model for you?
There are many great architects working in Sweden now, for example, Bengt Carlsson (participant of the Nordic Wood festival - archi.ru note). Norway has a great tradition of “tree houses”, they have also made great progress in the field of eco-construction from wood, according to the PassivHaus standard, etc. The Norwegian bureau Helen & Hard makes extraordinary projects. And every day I am inspired by traditional wooden houses. I myself live in a wooden apartment, and being surrounded by a tree is wonderful: it feels so good to the touch and smells great.
Ola Nylander is a Swedish architect and professor in the Department of Architecture at Chalmers University in Gothenburg. Manages his own architectural studio Nylander Arkitektur AB. Author of the book "Architecture of the home" (2002) about the immeasurable architectural characteristics that affect the quality of the home.
The illustrations show the Pumpkällehagen cottage community of 18 houses built by Ula Nylander according to the PassivHaus standard in Viskafors in southern Sweden (2009–2010).
