“The Forest” – Facts about the Swedish Pavilion

Kingdom of Sweden Pavilion – “The Forest”

• The Swedish Pavilion to Expo 2020 in Dubai is situated in the Sustainability District
• For the first time ever a sustainable building completely in timber is erected in the UAE.
• Approximately 2,600 cubic meters of timber has been used for the structure. Approximately half of it in the substructure.
• Every cubic meter of spruce timber, weighing approximately half a tonne, contains the carbon from almost 900 kg of CO2 (and the O2, the oxygen, now in the atmosphere.)
• A comparable structure in reinforced concrete would create a CO2 footprint of around 1,200 tonnes. The net effect of “The Forest” as a timber building compared to a concrete structure is somewhere between 3,000 and 3,500 tonnes less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Sustainable materials

• To avoid using CO2-intense reinforced concrete, very hard to reuse or recycle, the timber structure rest on a bed of vapour-tight Foamglas, produced of mainly recycled glass.
• The waterproofing of the substructure is based on natural bitumen to avoid potentially harmful plastics, eventually ending up as micro-plastics in the oceans
• Instead of poisoning the soil with neonicotinoids, harming most insects, the termite protection is based on borate and applied between the timber foundation and the waterproofing
• The timber structure is made of a combination of glulam and CLT, cross laminated timber. All components are made of spruce timber from managed forestry, mainly in Sweden, supplied by Stora Enso, Martinsons, Setra and Moelven.
• The 300 or so tree-trunks are naturally grown Swedish spruces where the bark has been removed, supplied by Octowood / Rundvirke poles.
• All stairs are made from huge pieces of solid CLT-elements supplied by Skonto in Latvia.
• The bathrooms are prefabricated timber pods, fitted by Nock in Sweden, shipped, and lifted in place. The two largest bathroom units are also used as structural elements.
• All timber components are connected with screws and brackets from RothoBlaas with the intention to facilitate the dismounting and reassembly of the structure.
• The exterior walls, the floors and the ceilings are insulated with wood fibre insulation from Steico
• All “tree-huts” are clad with flame retardant boards from Bäckegårds. The impregnation from Woodsafe is based on environmentally friendly chemicals.
• The lattice-panels, “mashrabiyat”, covering all the tree-huts, assembled by Viesve in Lithuania, are also made  from flame retardant Swedish spruce.
• The decking on the roof-top terraces come from Organowood. Their product uses the same principles as natural petrified wood to increase the resistance to all kinds of deterioration, including flame retardant characteristics.
• The windows are made of finger-jointed massive wood by Aliuminatas and the glass facades have all structural components of wood.
• All doors are made from wood by ASSA-ABLOY, a Swedish company operating in Dubai.
• The parquet, covering all floors but some technical spaces and the bathrooms, come from Kährs.   The timber floors are installed by the local representative Nordic Homeworx
  
• All timber products, except for some locally supplied plywood, come from sustainable forestry.
• The entire plot, including the exhibition space, is covered by locally supplied limestone in formats taken directly out of the quarry. The stone is laid in a sand bed with light weight aggregate filling of LECA.
• For the fencing of the exhibition space we use Manila hemp ropes and 3-ply timber boards
• The external sun shading from Capolino is made of natural linen and wood-based viscose fibres, installed between the tree-trunks with ropes and oak laths.

Supply systems

• The air handling units from Systemair operates without any recycled air. Instead the system uses highly efficient heat exchangers and integrated heat-pumps, eliminating the need for external cooling units.
• Thermal sun collectors from Absolicon provides hot water, also used to reduce the humidity in the  supply air.
• Advanced sand traps and various filters from Camfil are used to eliminate small and harmful particles in the air.
• Building integrated Soltech photovoltaic panels on the south façade, together with special PV roof tiles above the AHUs, provide almost 100 kW of solar power.
• The smart “Energy Hub” from Ferroamp is controlling all electric currents, balancing the three AC phases and handling the power from the DC-system with PV-panels and battery storage to reduce the peak effect. No power is uploaded to the grid.
• All surplus power is fed into three battery-packs from Nilar, adding extra power to the pavilion when needed and taking care of the surplus when the consumption is low.
• Where possible, kitchen appliances are using LPG to avoid conversion losses in power plants where the gas otherwise would be transformed into electricity.
• All condensation water from the cooling devices is collected and reused.
• There is no use of PVC in the pavilion. Conduits are made of recyclable metal and most pipes of HDPE and other less problematic plastics.
• Lighting is almost entirely LED. The Exhibition light bollards are made from tree-stumps.
• Most cables and pipes are hidden in the floors.

FF&E, Exhibition

• The furniture is being rented and will be rented out again to new clients after the World Expo.
• Tabletops and other furniture are provided by Tetra Pak, made of recycled packages.
• Wood will be the dominating material also in the signs used to inform and guide the visitors. In many cases we use manually handled signs instead of power consuming screens.
• The shop fit-out and other interiors will be predominantly made of 3-ply timber
• The public exhibition will showcase Bio-circular Economy, Connected Industry and New Materials, Next Generation’s Travel, Transports and Smart cities, Life Sciences and Smart Societies.

Facts from the forest of Sweden

• 70 percent of Sweden’s surface is covered by forest and consists of around 87 billion trees.
• Only one percent of trees in the Swedish forest is felled annually.
• For every tree harvested at least two new are planted.
• Every year, at least 380 million trees are planted in Sweden
• In the future, we hope to see a lot of buildings built in wood, clothes made by material from wood, etc.
• Almost 90 percent of Sweden’s pulp and paper production is being exported.
• The ancient right of public access in the countryside in Sweden entitles people to pick berries, gather mushrooms, to camp and to pursue outdoor recreational activities in the Swedish forest.
• There are 21,300 specimens in the Swedish forest with unique genes that is needed for the natural cycle.
• All rest products from the forest are burnt for heat and electricity or biological composited.