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.