Designed by Finnish architect Arkkitehdit Arosuo & Vapaavuori Oy, the 拢2m building has two floors of offices and a single-storey "timber academy", where staff and customers can learn about the uses of wood in construction.
Echoing the Finnish style, the building is on a concrete slab raised 1.5 m above the ground on concrete stilts.
The building itself is a giant billboard for the Finnforest range. Its structural frame is made of glulam wooden beams. The office block is clad in western red cedar (not sourced from Finland), and the timber academy is clad in ThermoWood, a heat-treated, rot-resistant product.
Internally, the ground floor has a double-height reception area with a glazed entrance, which creates a feeling of light and space. The rear of the building at ground-floor level has glazed cladding.
Upstairs, there are open-plan offices, meeting rooms and directors' suites. Here, shading is provided by discreet wooden slats in front of the windows that blend into the timber cladding. Walls and ceilings are clad in veneered mdf and birch ply. But the Finnish flavour of the scheme comes through most strongly in the staff sauna.
The scheme's structural engineer was Andrew Waring, and HH Adkins (Contractors) was the associate contractor. Mechanical engineering was provided by East Kirkby Engineering and Ladds Bros was the electrical engineer.
The building was officially opened in June by Finnish ambassador, Pertti Salulainen.
