Metsä Wood‘s Kerto LVL has played a significant role in the Netherlands’ first large-scale modular construction project, where the load-bearing structure has been built entirely from LVL. The five-storey residential complex in Almere, delivers 103 homes using an industrialised modular construction system developed by housing corporation De Alliantie and constructor Koopmans Bouwgroep. The project demonstrates how modular LVL construction can accelerate building delivery and reduce environmental impact while addressing construction sector challenges including longer timelines, labour constraints and the need to reduce carbon emissions.
Image Courtesy of: Metsa Woods
Industrial efficiency meets scalability
Xylino is constructed from 436 prefabricated wooden modules manufactured by geWOONhout, each arriving on site with integrated technical systems. Installation teams place eight to twelve modules per day, completing three to four apartments simultaneously, with an entire residential block reaching completion in approximately four weeks. The system’s scalability is enabled through digital design integration, where every component has a digital twin accessible via QR code, ensuring manufacturing consistency while allowing flexibility in layout and housing typologies.
Resource-efficiency and structural performance
Kerto LVL was selected for its superior strength-to-weight ratio and dimensional precision. The material is up to 50 percent more resource-efficient than comparable mass timber products while delivering equivalent performance, reducing transportation emissions and on-site material handling requirements.
The project utilises different Kerto LVL products optimised for specific applications: Kerto LVL S-beams measuring 5.2 metres for floors and roofs, shorter 2.9-metre S-beams for studs and rim beams, and Kerto LVL Q-panels extending 5.05 metres for floor surfaces. Load-bearing stability walls employ 100-millimetre reglued Q-panels at 3.3 metres. CNC machining maintains tolerances within 0.5 millimetres, ensuring precision installation and minimising waste.
Kerto LVL’s listing in Category 1 of the Dutch National Environmental Database provides verified lifecycle assessment data that simplifies compliance with Dutch sustainable building regulations and supports transparent environmental reporting.
Performance, comfort and circularity
Xylino meets rigorous standards for acoustic comfort, fire safety and durability, achieving R120 protection and 120 minutes of structural fire resistance. Acoustic decoupling between modules and additional mass in floors deliver residential performance thresholds.
Environmental considerations extend across the building lifecycle. Lighter foundations reduce transportation impacts, and modules are designed for disassembly and material recovery. The completed buildings feature solar panels, high-performance insulation and rainwater harvesting systems, with low-carbon concrete deployed only where necessary.
Image Courtesy of: Metsa Wood
Ready for replication
Xylino demonstrates that modular LVL construction can deliver affordable, high-quality housing at scale. Metsä Wood continues to expand Kerto LVL material supply and technical support across the Netherlands and Belgium to support the growing demand for industrialised timber construction. As Bas Broeke, Project Manager at Koopmans Bouwgroep, observed: “This system is ready to be repeated. The way it works here means we can apply it in many more places.”
Aafke Van der Werf, Director of geWOONhout, emphasises the project’s design ambitions: “The best thing about Xylino is that you can’t tell from the outside that it was built using industrialised methods. To me, that proves that architectural freedom and modular construction can go hand in hand.”
Metsä Wood
metsagroup.com/metsawood
The products of Metsä Wood, Metsä Group’s wood products business, include Kerto® LVL, birch and spruce plywood and further processed sawn timber. We convert renewable Northern wood into high-quality and material-efficient products, which store carbon for their whole life cycle. We promote a culture of diversity, equality and inclusion.
In 2025, our sales totalled EUR 0.5 billion, and we employ about 1,600 employees. Metsä Group’s parent company Metsäliitto Cooperative is owned by approximately 90,000 Finnish forest owners. The sales of the whole Metsä Group were EUR 5.8 billion.
