Estonian Woodhouse Association

How do you rate the future of wood as a building material, Mr Elari Kivisoo? At the moment we are seeing a strong trend towards building with timber, and wood products in general are becoming increasingly popular. Wood as an eco-friendly, renewable raw material has over recent years evolved into a valuable lifestyle pro­duct. It contri­butes towards improving the CO2 balance and makes zero-emissions building possible. Moreover, wood is by no means less stable than other materials. Quite the contrary: because it is considerably lighter than steel or concrete, for instance, wooden structures have to bear less own weight. However, the most important feature is the natural warmth that wood radiates. It is simply pleasant to be surrounded by this material on a daily basis. Which is why we expect that timber will gain still more in significance as a building material in the years to come. Which wood products are manufactured in Estonia? Estonian companies turn out a great range of products, from paper and cellulose through to everyday objects like wooden cutlery and trendy items of furniture, as well as cabins and houses. The members of the Estonian Woodhouse Association put the emphasis on machine-produced and handcrafted log cabins, as well as timber-frame houses, modular houses, pre-fabricated houses and summer houses, alongside high-grade inner fixtures such as wood and wood-aluminium windows, doors, stairs and staircases, solid timber flooring, plus garden loggias and pergolas. Do you use only native timber to build Estonian wood houses, or imported timber as well? By reason of the country’s far-reaching and extensive forest landscape Estonian companies manufacture the greater part of their products from native timber. Their slow growth pattern makes them particularly stable and long-lasting. Only a small proportion of the commercial timber is imported from Russia – a maximum of one-quarter, depending on the area of application. How has the industry deve­loped in Estonia over the last few years? The timber building industry has recovered very rapidly following a downswing caused by the financial crisis. Sales have been rising continuously since 2009 and they amounted to around € 45 mio in 2011 – an increase of twelve per cent on 2010. In the meanwhile Estonia has become the fourth-biggest exporter of wood houses throughout the EU. When it comes to the export of wood products in general, a rise of around one-third was achieved in 2011. All in all, wood…