An increasing number of architects and construction companies are turning to timber as a sustainable alternative to concrete and steel when designing and building tall structures – with timber-framed skyscrapers a real possibility in the near future.
The Norwegian town of Brumunddal is home to the world’s tallest timber building – the 280-foot-tall Mjøstårnet tower, containing apartments and office space, which opened in 2019. In Austria, a mixed-use timber building slightly shorter than Mjøstårnet recently opened in Vienna. Vancouver, Canada is home to a 174-foot-tall timber student accommodation, and in 2020 the city will see finalisation of a ‘hybrid’ timber, steel and concrete apartment block. And over in the US, construction work will begin in 2020 on a 238-foot wooden apartment block in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Such so-called ‘ply-scrapers’ have been made possible thanks to the development of cross-laminated timber (CLT), which is structurally stronger than standard timber – it is made by gluing strips of laminated wood together at 90-degree angles, perpendicularly, which are compressed under high pressure into beams or panels. Building regulations have been relaxed in the areas where these towers have been built, in recognition of the material’s efficacy, and the cost of using it has come down recently too.
The environmental advantage of using wood is that timber buildings are quicker to construct than concrete and steel ones, so less resources are used, while using trees means the carbon they have collected in their lifetime is ‘locked in’, rather than being released into the atmosphere when they die or if they are burned (the company in Milwaukee claims its use of wood is the equivalent of taking 2,100 cars off the road). What’s more, the cement industry is a major producer of CO2, and user of water, while the presence of concrete has been shown to be exacerbating flooding across the world – so avoiding concrete is a plus in itself.
As well as these sustainability benefits, studies have shown that living in natural environments has a positive effect of people’s health and wellbeing (and, perhaps surprisingly, wooden buildings can be made to be more fire-resistant than the alternatives) – therefore wooden homes and offices are simply better for us than concrete ones.
further reading…
An increasing number of architects and construction companies are turning to timber as a sustainable alternative to concrete and steel when designing and building tall structures – with timber-framed skyscrapers a real possibility in the near future.
The Norwegian town of Brumunddal is home to the world’s tallest timber building – the 280-foot-tall Mjøstårnet tower, containing apartments and office space, which opened in 2019. In Austria, a mixed-use timber building slightly shorter than Mjøstårnet recently opened in Vienna. Vancouver, Canada is home to a 174-foot-tall timber student accommodation, and in 2020 the city will see finalisation of a ‘hybrid’ timber, steel and concrete apartment block. And over in the US, construction work will begin in 2020 on a 238-foot wooden apartment block in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Such so-called ‘ply-scrapers’ have been made possible thanks to the development of cross-laminated timber (CLT), which is structurally stronger than standard timber – it is made by gluing strips of laminated wood together at 90-degree angles, perpendicularly, which are compressed under high pressure into beams or panels. Building regulations have been relaxed in the areas where these towers have been built, in recognition of the material’s efficacy, and the cost of using it has come down recently too.
The environmental advantage of using wood is that timber buildings are quicker to construct than concrete and steel ones, so less resources are used, while using trees means the carbon they have collected in their lifetime is ‘locked in’, rather than being released into the atmosphere when they die or if they are burned (the company in Milwaukee claims its use of wood is the equivalent of taking 2,100 cars off the road). What’s more, the cement industry is a major producer of CO2, and user of water, while the presence of concrete has been shown to be exacerbating flooding across the world – so avoiding concrete is a plus in itself.
As well as these sustainability benefits, studies have shown that living in natural environments has a positive effect of people’s health and wellbeing (and, perhaps surprisingly, wooden buildings can be made to be more fire-resistant than the alternatives) – therefore wooden homes and offices are simply better for us than concrete ones.