The Jorvas Sortti station is the first recycling station made of solid wood in Finland. Its architecture serves the station's function and conveys the significance of recycling on the environment. Low-carbon timber construction reinforces this message and gives the impression of a sustainable entity in function and structure.
The Jorvas Sortti station is one of the six waste sorting stations of the Helsinki Region Environmental Services in the Helsinki metropolitan area. It comprises base and container buildings, a pallet warehouse and a forklift garage. The station buildings and canopy structures are made of wood.
The Jorvas Sortti station is designed with a two-level courtyard layout. The upper level is dedicated to customer service, while the lower level serves as a logistical and operational area closed to the public. A driveway connects the base and the container hall in the upper courtyard, guiding customers to the sorting area. Here, waste is sorted under the shelter of a wooden canopy on pallets in the lower courtyard, and certain types of retail and waste are brought to the container hall in the upper yard.
The sorting station in Jorvas is mainly made of cross-laminated solid wood panels (CLT) and solid larch glulam blocks and columns. The wooden surfaces are left exposed inside and outside. The exterior cladding of the buildings is unfinished Siberian larch, which will grey naturally over time with weather and sun. The wooden interior surfaces of the base are treated with white protective wax, which protects the wooden surfaces from the darkening effects of sunlight.
