Improving land usage and the quality of the environment is an important matter at Porvoo, and wide scope for the living and working environment has been the basis of the town's development for over seven hundred years. The town plan on the west shore is a small-scale, compact structure, which, overall, is a model way of supplementing the old wooden-house town. The area is a part of the Modern Wooden Town project, which will provide the answer to wider environmental questions, the enjoyment of life, and to the responsiveness to the people who live there as well as to their well-being. Everything in the area has been made of wood, where possible.

The outer edge of the new wooden quarter is skirted by a wooden fence that has look-out holes and gates. The buildings are set right up against the street. In the buildings along the river on the ground floors there are studio premises with big windows. The number of purposes to which they can be put brings life to the shoreline street. There are numerous varying sights and different premises inside the quarter. The model for the yards has been taken from the wooden-house quarters of old.

The new wooden town offers its inhabitants the benefits of the village community of olden times - safety and the community spirit, embellished with a modern appearance and individuality. An important starting point in the housing plan was the influence the inhabitants could have on the room division and interior materials. When the area's future inhabitants were asked the most important factors that had influenced the choice of the future residence, they replied the human atmosphere of a wooden house and the healthiness of the indoor air.

Wood is a healthy alternative

The Finnish wood industry says that in 2010 wood will be the leading material in Europe in system solutions for housing construction and in consumer products for high-quality living. The bases for good living are to be found in safety and pleasantness. The demand for well-being products, natural materials and energy-saving materials is constantly on the increase. Wood is not only a static material - it is a lifestyle product, warm, solid, stylish and, in particular, health-enhancing.

Wood controls and evens out effectively the relative humidity in the air. It thus has a decisive effect on the quality of the air indoors. At the same time it keeps the temperature even. The effect is really tangible: anyone who has ever slept overnight in a wooden house notices a clear difference compared with other materials. Because the humidity is evened out, you feel fresh and relaxed in the morning - not only because of the effective sound insulation provided by wood!

By having a cleansing effect on the quality of indoor air and its relative humidity, wood also helps in the struggle against illnesses. Asthma and allergy sufferers feel no symptoms. There are no fungi or dust mites. Wood provides a natural ventilation system and heat recovery.

Wood is also environment-friendly, because as a building material it reduces the greenhouse emissions: the carbon dioxide remains in the wood for a building's entire life cycle. The environment-friendly quality of wood products is based on a material that originates in nature and is ever-renewable and on an energy-efficient production process.

Wood's effect on health can be obtained in buildings constructed with other materials. Products from the sawmill industry and plywood are used for interior decorating. Wooden furniture, battens and panelled walls increase the amount of wood in quite usual blocks of flats. The Wisa product brand in UPM-Kymmene's Wood Products Industry provides wood products for interior decorating, framework construction, facades and lining. There are 25 tree species in the Wisa product range.

>> http://w3.woodproducts.upm-kymmene.com/

Wood controls and evens out effectively the relative humidity in the air. It thus has a decisive effect on the quality of the air indoors.