UPM is partnering with the Finnish Aalto University to create a zero energy house for the Solar Decathlon Europe 2010 competition. The goal of the competition is to design and build a prototype of a solar powered energy house which produces more energy than it consumes.

The competition takes place in Madrid from 18 to 27 June 2010, where the building, named ‘Luukku House’, will be open to the public. Following the competition, the house will be moved to the Holiday Housing Fair 2011 in Mäntyharju, Finland.

The Luukku House is a result of an inter-disciplinary collaboration under the Aalto University with the aims to embody the long tradition of the Finnish timber house construction. UPM is one of Aalto University’s partners in the project offering its products and services to realise the house.

“When you take a house to a competition as far as to Madrid, you don’t want to settle for the second best in materials. Thus, we are pleased to be able to use UPM’s high quality spruce timber and plywood for this project” says Pekka Heikkinen, head of the project and professor at the Aalto University.

The wooden cladding of the building is using UPM Facade, a slow grown, live-knotted homogenous whitewood, tailor-made for this end use by UPM’s own sawmills. In addition to the cladding, UPM’s timber products are used in the roof and floor structures.

The roof sub-structure is made of WISA®-Roof plywood panels treated with an anti-mould agent for moisture protection during construction. The WISA-Roof offers superior strength especially for the load bearing roofing sub-structures in an easy-to-install solution. In addition, WISA-Spruce plywood is being used for the load bearing insulation elements and other plywood products in the exhibition. It will also be used during installation and for transport solutions.

Solar Decathlon Europe 2010

Solar Decathlon Europe is an international competition among universities aiming at advancing knowledge and dissemination of industrialised, solar and sustainable housing. The competition’s objective is to raise students’ awareness of various benefits and opportunities of renewable energy sources and energy efficient construction, and to challenge them to think creatively about energy and how it affects our everyday lives.

Please visit www.sdeurope.org for more information about Solar Decathlon Europe and www.sdfinland.com for more information about the Luukku House.

UPM Timber produces sawn timber and further processed timber products for the building and construction industry and joinery. The annual production capacity is 2.3 million cubic metres of timber products. UPM Timber has 1,200 employees and 12 production units in Austria, Finland, France and Russia. UPM’s Finnish sawmills are located in Lappeenranta (Kaukas), Kajaani, Pietarsaari (Alholma), Korkeakoski and Pori (Seikku). In Finland, UPM Timber employs approximately 800 people.

www.upmtimber.com

UPM Plywood offers high-quality WISA plywood and veneer products mainly for construction, transport and furniture industries. The sales of UPM Plywood in 2009 were EUR 306 million and it has about 3,200 employees, of which 2,450 in Finland. UPM has 6 plywood mills and 2 veneer mills in Finland, a plywood mill in Russia and a plywood mill in Estonia.

www.wisaplywood.com

UPM leads the integration of bio and forest industries into a new, sustainable and innovation-driven future. Our products are made of renewable raw materials and are recyclable. UPM consists of three Business Groups: Energy and pulp, Paper, and Engineered materials. The Group employs around 23,000 people and it has production facilities in 15 countries. In 2009, UPM’s sales amounted to EUR 7.7 billion. UPM’s shares are listed on the Helsinki stock exchange.