Company: JVR-Rakenne Oy
Industry: Timber construction, Residential and commercial buildings, CLT construction
Location: Finland
Year founded: 2013
JVR Rakenne Oy is a pioneer in Finnish solid wood element construction. JVR Rakenne constructs apartment buildings of the future with a smaller carbon footprint and lower lifecycle costs. JVR Rakenne is a forerunner in industrial wooden apartment building, having already built more than 1000 timber apartment blocks using CLT (cross-laminated timber) elements.
Since JVR Rakenne shifted into primarily timber construction projects and the timber design company formally took shape, ArchiFrame has been JVR’s design software of choice.
Jaakko Vänttilä (M.Sc. in structural engineering and architecture) explains the process behind choosing ArchiFrame:
“We chose ArchiFrame because it is an Archicad extension. We noticed that most architects use Archicad, and we want to minimize remodeling when we move from one design field to another. When an architect designs in Archicad, we put the model directly into use and build based off the same model. Not taking a model from another system and/or building a new model in another system, means we have less errors and quality doesn’t suffer.
Our goal is to use one model as efficiently as possible. That is why we use ArchiFrame in every project: we require architects to use Archicad so that we do not have to remodel anything,” Jaakko summarizes the thinking behind keeping everything streamlined and in the Archicad/ArchiFrame ecosystem.
ArchiFrame and its compatibility with IFC files becomes useful when there are other software elements at play: “In practice, this principle is not always fulfilled, because some architects use other systems and Archicad is not yet used by structural, HVAC and electrical designers so much, but we can take IFC models from them.”
Jaakko highlights that using a building information model for creating timber high-rise buildings brings many benefits beyond visualization and 3D-modeling, such as property information; for example, designers can create ready-made machining images for the CLT panel factory. Based on the unique building information model, factory staff can program factory machines to correctly cut and tool CLT panels.
According to Jaakko, the best thing about ArchiFrame is the software’s extensive and versatile editing options: “If you can not do something specific in ArchiFrame automatically, there is always a manual way to do it. You won’t get stuck and you will always find a detour one way or another. ArchiFrame is a system with good usability and very versatile features.”
In their work, JVR also takes advantage of ArchiFrame’s relatively new CLT feature. According to Jaakko, the CLT system is functional (of course, there is always room for improvement).
There is also a workable solution to any missing features: ArchiFrame users can develop the software together with the ArchFrame product team. “We have presented the ArchiFrame team with several development proposals and they have also been implemented. In a way, this means that the software is developed together. We create the design and communicate ideas for future development to the software developer who strives to implement them,” Jaakko explains how the productive user and developer co-creation at ArchiFrame works.
JVR Rakenne Oy, Finland
