Versola wins the 2026 Wood Award: a flexible office building serves as a model for many types of buildings

The 2026 Wood Award for architecture has been given to Versowood’s headquarters, Versola, in Vierumäki. According to the jury, the glulam-framed office building of nearly 3,200 square meters could also serve as a model for commercial premises, schools and daycare centers.

In brief

• Puuinfo Ltd awarded the 2026 Wood Award to Versola, Versowood’s headquarters in Vierumäki, at Wood Day in Helsinki on 12 November 2026.
• Versola is a two-storey office building of nearly 3,200 square meters. Its load-bearing frame, including the intermediate floor and the roof structure, is made of Versowood’s own glulam. New types of glulam joints and wooden columns were developed during construction.
• According to jury chair Asko Takala, the building’s structural system would suit not only offices but also commercial premises, schools and daycare centers.
• The competition received 21 entries from around Finland. The public vote was won by a wooden sauna.

“In Versola, wood is both felt and seen, and so is the expertise in architecture and structures,” says Asko Takala, chair of the Wood Award jury and of the Finnish Association of Architects SAFA.

According to Takala, what makes Versola special is how well the office building fits its setting.

“The building stands on the border between an industrial area and a small village, which are on entirely different scales. There it manages to combine the characteristics of the local environment while also developing them,” Takala says.

Versola is the headquarters of Versowood, one of Finland’s largest privately owned wood processing groups and a producer of sawn timber.

From the outside, the two-storey, 3,200-square-meter Versola looks almost modest. The jury’s award rationale notes that “the spaces have been designed from the inside out, starting from the users’ needs, which is reflected in a work environment that is calm, pleasant and inviting.”

The building was designed by the architecture firm Planetary Architecture. According to architect Pekka Pakkanen, the starting point of the design was a flexible, standard-type office building. The aim was for the premises to serve as a gateway to the factory area and a meeting place for the company’s employees, who work in very different roles.

“Wood allows us to build worlds that are human, warm and visually pleasing, as is typical of the material. It is especially inspiring that ways of building with wood can be developed and refined further,” Pakkanen says.

Wood is “pretty much unbeatable” as a material

Planetary Architecture specializes in architecture that seeks solutions for the transition to a bio- and circular economy. There are other building materials in bioeconomy as well, but as a frame material wood is, in Pakkanen’s words, “pretty much unbeatable”, not least because a wooden frame acts as a long-lasting carbon store.

Versola’s load-bearing frame, including the intermediate floor and the roof structure, is made of glulam from the building’s developer, Versowood. New types of glulam structural joints and wooden columns were also developed during construction.

The whole, with its column-beam-slab frame system, has become the basis for a new concept for wooden office buildings. Thanks to mechanical joints, the wings of the building could, for example, be modified to meet changing needs in the future.

According to Takala, Versola’s concept could suit many types of buildings. Its considered, sensible yet pleasant architecture would suit not only offices and commercial premises but also schools and daycare centers.

Wood Award competition highlighted the versatility of wood

The 2026 Wood Award competition received 21 entries from around Finland. The very different purposes of the entries illustrate the versatility of wood in Finnish construction. The entries included public buildings, residential buildings, learning environments, leisure buildings, multipurpose facilities and infrastructure projects.

The public vote was won by a distinctly Finnish building, appropriately named Puusauna (“Wood Sauna”). In the sauna, designed by the architecture firm Jaakko Torvinen, the wood has been processed as little as possible. The load-bearing columns are knotty pine tops, and the beams are traditional solid timber.

What makes the sauna unusual is its inspiration from Japan. The wide roof, the terrace surrounding the building and the tea room refer to Japanese wooden architecture.

What is the Wood Award?

The Wood Award has been presented annually since 1994 as an incentive for a building, interior or structure that represents high-quality Finnish wood architecture or in which wood has been used in a way that advances construction technology. The award is given by Puuinfo Ltd, whose aim is to increase expertise in wood construction and the use of wood.