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Site visit to Kuhmo

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Kuhmo is located in central-eastern Finland, an 8-hour journey away from Helsinki. During our site visit in November we spent two mornings on the site, after which we were given a guided tour by city representatives, visiting the town's architectural and cultural highlights and some Woodpolis companies.

Site survey

We did a detailed site survey of Kuhmo's market square. We photographed and took measurements of the surrounding buildings, trees and roads, on the ground and via drone. We also analysed traffic and acoustics, and interviewed local residents.

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    Students measuring surroundings
    A member is doing topographic surveying
    A Japanese member is standing with long ruler
    Seeing the site from road
    Students with measuring equipment
    Student Johanna interviewing local residents
    Students talking on site with local reporter
    Students measuring site
    Students measuring the site

    Sightseeing

    Kuhmo has a range of interesting architectural sights. These include Kuhmotalo, a state-of-the-art concert venue; the new Tuupala timber school; and the Juminkeko centre, a cultural centre focusing on Karelian and Kalevala heritage with some really beautiful timber detailing.

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      Kuhmotalo concert hall

      Kuhmotalo concert hall

      Teacher Jaakko in Kuhmotalo

      Kuhmotalo concert hall

      Students on the stage of Kuhmotalo

      Kuhmotalo concert hall

      Kuhmotalo

      Kuhmotalo concert hall

      The wooden Tuupala school in Kuhmo

      Tuupala wooden school

      Juminkeko Centre library

      Juminkeko Centre

      Students outside Juminkeko centre building

      Juminkeko Centre

      Timber companies

      Since Kuhmo is known for its wood industry, we were able to visit some companies to get a better understanding of industrial wood production. Kuhmo Oy, a large sawmill operator, introduced us to its long history and showed us around their facilities, including a recently opened, fully digitally operated sawline. Crosslam is a pioneering manufacturer of cross-laminated timber (CLT). Lastly, Luottopuu is a smaller company that provides timber for more special use cases.

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        Wood Program students are shown around the Kuhmo Oy sawmill control room
        Students walking around sawmill
        Students walking across a metal bridge over sawmill equipment
        Teachers smiling in Kuhmo Oy control room
        Logs in the yard of Kuhmo Oy
        Smiling students
        Large bus with LED letters showing words 'Aalto University'
        A CNC cut wooden panel showing the Crosslam logo in their factory
        Students standing around a pile of CLT in the Crosslam factory hall
        A piece of CLT during fabrication
        The Crosslam manufacturing hall, a large space with pieces of CLT everywhere and a big crane
        A piece of CNC cut CLT
        Presentation at Luottopuu
        A pile of thick logs in the storage warehouse of Luottopuu
        Reflection of the bus driver in the mirror
        Scan of article in Kuhmolainen describing our site surveying efforts.

        Newspaper feature

        Our surveying efforts did not go unnoticed! Apart from the curiosity of people on their way for groceries, some of us were interviewed by local newspaper Kuhmolainen. The next day we featured in an article by Antero Kumolainen. Read it here (in Finnish)

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