A couple of years have passed since the group Tänk om Trä was formed. A study visit during the renovation of Feskekörka in Gothenburg during their student years sparked the idea of working more with timber – and doing it together.
Today, the group's members are spread across workplaces and universities around the country.
More on-hands learning
“I think we all had a longing for more hands-on learning. It's a bit strange that you can study to become an architect or engineer without ever having been on a building site. We saw this as a way to learn more about timber and the industry,” says Oskar Nesset Mattsson.
One project led to another. Ahead of Trä & Teknik 2024, they were commissioned to create an entrance pavilion and stage for the fair. They approached the timber company Derome and asked what offcut timber was available from production.
The company donated waney-edged sarking board (underlay panel) and a large pile of short offcuts from the production of finger-jointed structural timber.
“We wanted to show that it's possible to build a structural frame from "slender" offcut timber, as long as you think one step further and work with the material,”says Daga Karlsson.
The structure is made almost exclusively from this timber. Each arch consists of 100 timber blocks and 100 plywood connectors, joined together by around 400 small wooden pegs. The pegs were made from what was left over when the group processed the sarking board.
“We noticed that circular building requires a lot of logistics and hands-on work. Even though this was a relatively small project, we had problems with storage, and all the offcut timber needed to be sorted and processed by hand,“ says Daga Karlsson.
Turning timber offcuts into a structural idea
Tänk om Trä draws inspiration from historical and materialefficient building techniques, where offcut timber and timber with uneven dimensions have been used to build large load-bearing structures. One example is Hilding Brosenius's HB beam, developed to span large distances using short planks. Another model is the Zollinger construction.
To adapt their structure to the uneven timber dimensions, the group coded a parametric script that automatically generated the drawings.
“The structure consists of so many connections that without the script it would have been extremely time-consuming to manage them,” says Benjamin Björksell.
Learning from traditional timber construction
After the fair, the finished work was exhibited both at Chalmers and at Virserums konsthall in Småland. The project was also awarded Swedish Wood's stipend Ung Svensk Form 2026. The award included a study trip to Östergötland. There, the group visited sawmills, took part in a forest excursion and met people in the industry.
“We had the opportunity to meet many interesting people and visit inspiring places. A highlight was the villa 'House for mother' in Linköping by Förstberg Ling,” says Oskar Nesset Mattsson.
The project has also raised questions about how timber is used in today's construction.
“There are unique qualities to architecture where the natural behaviour of timber is legible. We need glued products too, not least as another way to make use of more of the raw material, but in cases where the structure also reveals the properties of timber, how it has been worked and the craftsmanship behind it, the experience becomes richer. It would be a loss not to have both,” says Hanna Bergqvist.
All about offcut materials
Waney-edged sarking board: Lower-quality sarking board was used for the stage cladding and the arch feet, made from self-produced glulam.
Offcuts from finger-jointed structural timber: Pieces with defects that were sawn off during the production of finger-jointed structural timber. The blocks, approximately 20–30 centimetres long, are the pavilion's primary building component.
Secondary offcuts: The offcuts generated during the group's work were put to use. The tongue and groove of the sarking board were sawn off, then turned and whittled into pegs. The end-grain block flooring on top of the stage is made from offcuts from the production of the arches. All the material for 'Spill till stomme' is Swedish spruce from Derome's sawmill in Veddinge.
Text: Gustav Schöön Photo: Benjamin Björksell
