Joining forces for Korea: BuildGreen-Korea’s first workshop brings together 18 companies to develop joint offerings
On 22 September 2026, BuildGreen-Korea held its first introductory workshop online. The session brought together 18 companies from Estonia, Finland and Latvia. The goal of the workshop was not to present companies side by side, but to explore how complementary expertise from across the three countries could be combined into joint offerings built around real Korean customer needs. Participants brought a wide range of expertise from CLT producers and prefab manufacturers to architects, digital tool developers and green building specialists.
The day kicked off with a round of company introductions, followed by an open pitch of joint offering ideas and a group vote on the most promising concepts. Three thematic clusters emerged, and companies joined the group that best matched their expertise. Each group then worked through a set of questions — defining the concept, identifying potential roles and partners, mapping Korean customer segments, and agreeing on next steps.
Three promising concepts emerged from the first session. The first, Human-Centered Living & Wellbeing, focuses on creating new concepts for living, hospitality and wellbeing by combining Nordic architecture, natural materials and intuitive digital experiences — targeting real estate developers, senior living operators, hospitality sector and public municipalities. The second concept, Modular Designer Korea, proposes a digital configurator that allows architects to design and specify Nordic building products, while Korean manufacturers and contractors handle local pricing, production and delivery. The third concept, Digitalized Project Management and AI in Construction, combines Common Data Environment (CDE) and BIM-based collaboration with AI-powered optimization of work schedules, risk prediction, quality control and safety monitoring — aimed at construction companies, real estate developers and public-sector clients across Korea.
The workshop was a first exploration — no joint products or responsibilities were agreed yet. Participants noted that more time and ideally an in-person meeting would help develop genuine partnerships. The most important next step is to appoint a lead for each offering concept. The BuildGreen Korea team is also preparing a study trip to South Korea at the end of October to meet associations, universities and research institutions and identify leads for the first joint offerings.
On 6 October, Seoul-based expert Maxime Beyer joins an online training session to give a practical introduction to Korean business culture, buyer behaviour and market access strategies.
The joint offering process is just getting started. If your company works in construction, timber, digital building, architecture or sustainability — and you are curious about the South Korean market — there is still an opportunity to get involved. Reach out to Teemu Lehtinen of KIRAHub.
BuildGreen-Korea
BuildGreen Korea is a three-year Interreg Central Baltic project helping built-environment SMEs from Estonia, Finland and Latvia strengthen their export capabilities and enter the South Korean market. It combines market insight, training and international networking with joint offering development, testing and connections to South Korean partners and customers.
