This spring, the Wooden Architecture Competence Center of EKA PAKK and Elektrilevi started a cooperation project to develop a modular, factory-produced, circular economy supporting wooden building, using the 369 Pattern Buildings (in Estonian, Mustermaja 369) design system developed and made publicly available by EKA.
Elektrilevi has now announced the public procurement for the construction of this building, a future training center to be located in Kiili, Harju county – a pilot project pushing for an innovation leap in the architecture and construction sector.
The Elektrilevi training centre building will be the first 100% modular, wooden, top architectural and technical quality training / educational building in Estonia. It will assembled from industrially produced components and can in the future be easily disassembled, maintained, expanded or moved if necessary – this is something completely new in design and construction. The building planned in the 369 Pattern Buildings system shows how school buildings of the future can be built in such a way that it would enrich the local community and not remain an administrative burden but rather keep in step with the needs of the customer.
For the Pattern Buildings design system developed at EKA, the cooperation with Elektrilevi means coming to a pilot project stage. According to Renee Puusepp, the head of the EKA Pattern Buildings research team, thanks to Elektrilevi, we’re all one step closer to a sustainable built environment that follows the basic principles of circular economy. “Patterned houses – ‘mustermajad’ in Estonian – are needed to interweave the design of buildings with their production and construction. Modular pattern houses are of higher quality, more environmentally friendly and more human-friendly than traditionally constructed buildings built on the site – and more affordable when properly applied,” explained Puusepp.
According to Maria Freimann and Juhan Kangilaski from WHAT IF consulting agency, partner of the cooperation project between EKA and Elektrilevi, the biggest stumbling block in today’s building design process is the huge amount of time required for design and construction and the unpredictable final cost of the project. “The pattern-customizable system of 369 Pattern Buildings offers a solution to both problems: creating a project from pre-designed elements helps to conveniently create buildings with different functionalities, while also monitoring the total cost of the project in real time. The 369 Pattern Building system is bringing change to the entire construction sector, making sense of the whole process of planning, designing and building buildings” say Freimann and Kangilaski.
Elektrilevi plans to open the new training center in the 2023-2024 academic year. The training center will be focussing primarily on the vocational training of electric grid employees, and thus also promoting the profession.
Wooden Architecture Competence Center PAKK is a research center operating at the Faculty of Architecture of EKA and combining research and teaching with new design methods, living environment and product development, bringing together researchers, specialists and students from all sectors. PAKK deals with three major topics: the green revolution in construction, the digital revolution in industry and new methods for designing wooden factory buildings.
- The procurement announced on 31.05.22 can be viewed here: https://riigihanked.riik.ee/rhr-web/#/procurement/4369390/general-info
- The introduction of the joint venture of 369 Pattern Buildings and Elektrilevi (1h) can be viewed here: https://www.artun.ee/arendusprojekti-elektrilevi-mustermaja-tutvustus/
Additional information:
Anna Tommingas
Project Manager of PAKK
anna.tommingas@artun.ee