Swedish Wood will be announcing the 12th Swedish Timber Prize, in Sweden entitled “Träpriset”, architecture award on 9 March 2016. The jury has considered the 139 entries that were submitted by the deadline in January 2015. The competition is open to any type of structure, as long as wood forms a significant part of the design. It has to be fully completed, no more than four years old and available for the Swedish Timber Prize jury to visit.
China is committed to increasing the use of wood in future construction, as set out in a directive signed by China’s Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Chen Zhenggao. This is the first time that China has issued a directive to increase wood construction, and it represents a major breakthrough for the technique in the world’s largest construction market. The directive states that the use of wood is to be increased in contexts such as rooftop extensions, curtain walls, tourist facilities, schools, hospitals and other official buildings.
Today, Sweden mainly exports spruce to the Chinese furniture industry, but there is an increased interest in using pine for furniture in China. This was clearly noted during the furniture and interior design fair FMC in Shanghai on 9-12 September. The furniture exhibited by leading Chinese manufacturers on Swedish Wood's stand aroused considerable interest. All the furniture was made of knotty Swedish pine.
- Chinese furniture industry embraces Swedish wood Swedish Wood organised in May a study trip to Sweden for several of China's most prominent and large-scale furniture manufacturers between 4-9 May. The trip is part of a project aiming to increase the use of Swedish wood in furniture manufacturing in China. Swedish Wood is responsible formanaging the project in collaboration with the China National Furniture Association (CNFA). Participants on the trip included both representatives of corporate management and furniture designers from the Chinese companies.
His Excellency Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality, showed interest in modern wood building and furniture design in wood by visiting the inauguration of Swedish Wood's pavilion at the Dubai Wood Show, the largest trade fair for wood products in the Middle East. Ten Swedish sawmill companies were participating in the Swedish pavilion; together they represented about 70 % of Sweden's wood exports.
Acoustic calculation tools for timber structures are of major importance for the timber industry in order to overcome any uncertainties regarding prediction of their performance. Welcome to an exciting seminar arranged by the European project Silent Timber Build in cooperation with Swedish Wood and the Swedish Wood Building Council.
A wooden bridge emits nearly half as much greenhouse gases from cradle to grave compared with a concrete bridge. Materials and maintenance account for the absolute largest part of the emissions. These are the results of a comparative life-cycle analysis done in Sweden by Tyréns and SP Trä on behalf of TräCentrum Norr, TCN.
Swedish Wood has brought together two Swedish institutes of education and the American University of Dubai to contribute to more international exchanges in the area of wood design. “It’s important to market Swedish wood products abroad. There is great potential in Swedish Wood showing the distinctive character of pine as a wood of beauty that can be brought out even more in finer furniture design”, says Léo Johannsson, lecturer at Carl Malmsten Furniture Studies, one of the two schools visited during the study trip, which also included meetings with Sweden’s wood processing industries.
Moroccan designers find inspiration in Sweden – through visits to various real environments covering the refinement process from tree-felling to modern wood products. “We’re on a voyage of discovery of wood culture”, say Kanza Ben Cherif and Said Guihia, two designers from Casablanca who are taking part in Swedish Wood’s tour.
