Garage48 Future of Wood 2022 solutions offer crisis relief and rebuilding support to Ukraine

On the 25-27 of November 130 participants across the Baltics, as well as from Denmark, USA, Canada, Ukraine and other countries met at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn, Estonia. It is the sixth year that members of the architecture and wood processing fields came together to create and revalue the use of wood in a 48-hour prototyping weekend format. Building connections to transfer knowledge from Estonia, and developing solutions for crisis relief and rebuilding of Ukraine was at the centre of this year’s makeathon.
The Garage48 Wood makeathon series has each year been brought together by a community of co-organizers and partners, who believe the makeathon is a good platform for discussion and collaboration that develops better ways of how we use and preserve our precious forests and wood. This year we took it further. With the co-organizers team of Garage48, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonian Research Council and TSENTER Competence Centre, we felt that the wood makeathon has the potential to support rebuilding in Ukraine.

With close to 180 registrations for the event, we had to close the registration early.


We heard so many ideas on Friday evening that were not focused only on rebuilding, but on offering immediate relief to people sheltering from missile attacks or who are on the move having to have left their home in Ukraine. 

- Kadri Tiisvelt, Garage48


The makeathon kicked off on Friday with 25 ideas pitched and 19 teams formed around the top ideas.

Another Future of Wood makeathon has made history - 130 participants worked on 19 different ideas. While being the most crowded wood hackathon over six years, this years event also had the most serious main theme - Rebuild Ukraine. I sincerely hope that some of these works will actually find a way to help ukrainians go through that madness they are torn into right now.

- Lauri Semevsky, TSENTER Competence Centre.


Supporting the solution ideas to reach Ukraine, we had architects from Ukraine joining in as mentors and jury members and participants from Ukraine. Challenges were proposed by ESTDEV, dedicated to building homes for children who have lost their parents in the war, and Thermory and Ülemiste City, for rebuilding public spaces in Ukraine. We were honoured to welcome Anna Bondar, member of the Ukrainian Parliament and an architect, in the jury.

To bring the whole event together, we have our partners from Startup Estonia, Estonian Woodhouse Cluster, Lemeks Grupp, Rothoblaas, Creatomus, WZHM, Raitwood and Mass to thank.

It is the participants that make any of Garage48 hackathons and we applaud all the teams that participated

. It was really great to see so many familiar faces and to welcome participants across the Baltics, from Ukraine and beyond, as far as the USA and Canada.



Meet the winners:


1+Xcreated a modular system, which consists of one smart module and other basic modules. The modules are made of straw panels and the modular system is fully off-grid (self-sustainable).


General Winner, ESTDEV challenge winner, and a winner of the special prize of the perpetual license to Creatomus web configurator software for rapid design of modular buildings.

Team 1+X at the finals with Ivo Jaanisoo from Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications for Estonia.


Our team was the key to our success because we could make fast decisions together and cope with them. We are very thankful for the mentors, who helped us overcome the obstacles we faced and pushed us to think further with our ideas. This Makeathon event opened many doors for us, and we are very grateful that we have now a chance to make a difference in the world and help Ukraine.

- Aneth Traumann - 1+X team leader


Team 1+X.


Team members: Aneth Traumann - team leader; Triinu Amboja - architect; Liispet Viira - architect; Roosmarii Kukk - architect; Valera Krinberg - architect; Rasmus Meema - engineer; Miko Vahane - architect



Safe Space - built a foldable tent that will help Ukrainians with temporary accommodation in order to have their own privacy and safe space for better sleep.


2nd place


Team Safe Space at the finals with Andres Ojari from  Estonian Academy of Arts.


Team Safe Space


Team members: Priit Kangur - wood expert/designer; Kira Dressel - physicist/designer; Dushill Parshotam - engineer; Olayinka Hammed Sikiru - business developer; Ghizlane Laasri - business developer.



KAMOON - built a mechanical weaving device to speed up the making of camouflage nets for helmets.


3rd place

Team KAMOON at the finals with Indrek Tulp from Estonian Research Council.


I am kind of a makeathon addict and this was my 18th hackathon. I keep coming back because I love how we can intensely work on building something ambitious but at the same time without much responsibility just yet. I think I have grown into a much braver person because of such playful experiences. Future of Wood this time had everything I hoped for and some extra. Next step is to put what we made and learnt to real world use.

- Anna Jõgi -  KAMOON mechanical engineer 


Team KAMOON


Team members: Anna Jõgi - mechanical engineer and team leader; Kadi Pajupuu - marketing; Mihhail Zujev - engineering solutions; Riina Samelselg - textile designer



Public Builder - is providing explosion debris protective temporary modular furniture for the public spaces of Ukraine from a 2nd hand-accessible materials to allow public testing first and reduce waste of big-scale expensive projects that don´t work in practice. Furniture will be assembled and installed in cooperation with Ukrainian architectural NGOs, city councils, and international volunteers.


Winner of the Thermory & Ülemiste city challenge, Startup Estonia challenge and Pass to Prototron 2023 Spring Program.

Team Public Builder at the finals with Hannes Tarn from Thermory AS.


For some of us, it was the first ever hackathon in our lives and emotions were overwhelming. As a team, we started from being strangers and in 48 hours became a family with a clear goal. And the fact that we had established connections with Ukraine made our project seem even more real and needed. We are so-so grateful to all the mentors who were constantly coming by our room, participating in heated discussions, bombarding us with the best ideas, and supporting us from the bottom of their hearts. Even helping 10 min before the final pitch! We are so grateful for the prizes, but we also feel the responsibility to deliver to people who believed in us and gave us a chance to continue to work. We are promising not to give up and I'm hoping you will hear from us very soon!

- Margarita Zahharova -  Public Builder software developer


Team Public Builder


Team members: Oksana Buziak - architect; Marta Buriak - urbanist; Margarita Zahharova - software developer; Maksim Antonov - engineer; Vello Laanemaa - carpetener.



Limitless House - main focus is to create an affordable modular house with predetermined solutions for expansion in the future.


Won a Pass to Prototron 2023 Spring Program and Pass to Tartu Science Park S2B Launchpad incubator.

Team Limitless House at the finals with Jana Budkovskaya from Prototron.


Team Limitless House


Team members: Tautvydas Laugalaitis - structural engineer; Paulius Buividas - structural engineer; Lukas Noreika - HVAC engineer; Martynas Jonelis - site engineer; Dmytro Oleksiienko - architect; Bo Dehollogne - architect; Elisa Toonekurg - architect.


reSET - with the reSET project, it is possible to have modular spaces/furniture that serves different functions according to user needs. It can be easily changed, adaptable, flexible, transformed, removed, quick installation and easily moved.


Won the use of the TalTech collaboration area for 6 months and a winner of the FAVORITE OF THE AUDIENCE title and Garage48 goodie bags.

Team reSET at the finals with Noora Ustav from Garge48. 


Team reSET.


Team members: Alp Eren Özalp - architect; Aleyna Canpolat - architect; Adam Pekala- engineer/enthusiast; Marul Pais - engineer; Karmen Koov - engineer.



Svit - an architectural project and strategic solution to respond to the new housing crisis in Ukraine during the Russia-Ukraine war. The aim of this project is to build a new modular housing system to provide a new dwelling for Internally Displaced Persons in Ukraine whose house was destroyed or locates in an occupied the area at the current moment.


Special price - Slava Balbek byro consultation

Team Sivit at the finals.

                          Team Sivit.

Team members: Oleksandr Nenenko - prototype modeling, team leader; Yelyzaveta Peresada - prototype modelling; Kyrylo Ruchka - 3d modelling; David Koribian - 3d modelling; Hanna Kazatseva - graphics, 3D modelling; Daria Chetveryk - graphics; 3D modelling; Dmytro Puhachenko - construction; Deniss Vezikov - prototype modelling; Anna Revunova- prototype modelling.


Timber blanket - Temporary public service shelter made of reciprocal modular wooden elements. Intuitive assembly out of available material on site.


Special price from Raitwood.

Team Timber blanket at the finals with Ivar Dembovski from Raitwood.

Team Timber blanket.


Team members: Kertu Johanna Jõeste - team lead, architect; Leho Villi - lead engineer; Siim Tanel Tõnisson - architect: Tristan Krevald - architect; Ra Martin Puhkan - architect; Gert Christjanson - designer.


Thank you to all the participants, partners, mentors, organizers and jury panel members!


Partners


If you want to see more of the Garage48 Wood makeathon:

Check out the whole photo album.

See all the teams in the Favorite of the Audience photo album.

Rewatch the finals.


Photos by Silver Gutmann.


Garage48 Future of Wood 2022: Rebuild Ukraine is financed by the Estonian Academy of Arts, Garage48, Estonian Research Council, TSENTER Competence Centre, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Startup Estonia, Rothoblaas, Ülemiste City, Thermory, Raitwood, Lemeks Grupp, Eesti Puitmajaliit, Mass AS, Raitwood and Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences.


The general prize pool is funded by Creatomus Solutions, Raitwood, WZMH architects, Estonian Academy of Arts, Garage48, Estonian Research Council, TSENTER Competence Centre, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Startup Estonia, Rothoblaas, Ülemiste City, Thermory, Raitwood, Lemeks Grupp, Eesti Puitmajaliit, Mass AS, Raitwood, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences.


We are supported by sTARTUp Day 2023, Tartu Science Park, Prototron, Taltech and ESTDEV.




You may also like

Garage48 Wood makeathon winners are creating climate neutral economy with broadened modular building solutions and a 100-year-old building technique
On 26-28 November, the fifth edition of the Garage48 Wood makeathon took place in Väimela in ...
Read more →
Green is the new Black: Estonia, as the coordinator of NB8, leading the way towards a more sustainable future.
On the 21st of November, the journey to bring together young people from 8️ countries ...
Read more →
Garage48 Wood series - stronger than ever
On Nov 13-15th, the fourth Garage48 Wood makeathon opened it’s workshops in Tartu, Estonia. C...
Read more →