Archinect - News

A lack of product standardization is hindering mass timber’s growth in North America, expert warns

2024-07-15T11:43:00-04:00

Product standardisation—or the lack thereof—is a major obstacle to mass timber adoption, especially in the lower-rise and mid-rise “sweet spots.” It comes as Europe is miles ahead of North America (Asia-Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand) in developing mainstream mass timber systems.

“They [North America] have a mature market where woodworkers and integration shops work alongside billet producers to service the market,” Adrian Mitchell told the outlet. “It is not about whose panel size got designed by the engineer into a project from the start, giving that manufacturer an advantage because no one else produces that panel size, which is happening here.”

Nevertheless, an increase in demand within the U.S. has led to forecasts that the total domestic market, which was valued at $179.4 million last year, will reach $655.6 Million by 2032, according to Yahoo! Finance.

Lina Ghotmeh's 2023 Serpentine Pavilion serves the community an invitation to 'dwell together'

2023-06-07T03:00:00-04:00

Lina Ghotmeh’s 2023 Serpentine Pavilion design makes its official debut this week in London. For the 22nd contribution to the summer pavilion series, the Lebanese-born and Paris-based architect showcases a design that highlights aspirations towards community gathering in a manner that speaks to the importance of building relationships while "inviting us to convene, sit down, think, share, and celebrate exchanges."

The design for À table (whose name in French means to call and invite those to sit together for conversation and a meal) is a lightweight, pleated canopy roof that references the structure of a palm leaf. The design of the space aims to "respond to the surrounding tree canopies," while the internal wooden beans are meant to "emerge as thin tree trunks" encompassing the pavilion. The detailed, plant-like cut-out patterns of the panels assist in providing natural light and ventilation in the pavilion as it surrounds a concentric series of tables that sit within the pavilion...

IAAC team’s mass timber nature observatory floats above a Barcelona forest

2023-05-16T12:13:00-04:00

A team from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) has constructed a timber observatory in a Barcelona forest to support analyses of nature. The group of students and researchers from the institution’s Masters in Advanced Ecological Buildings and Biocities program were inspired by the hanging walkways of American biologist Margaret D. Lowman.

Image credit: Adrià Goula

Located in the city’s Collserola Natural Park, and named the Forest Lab for Observational Research and Analysis (FLORA), the facility seeks to provide researchers a space to live and work in the forest canopy. Among the observatory’s facilities are a bird radio, bird houses, working and projection space, as well as bird watching spaces.

Image credit: Adrià Goula

The observatory’s design process began with students studying the biodiversity of the forest, including identifying various inhabitants from underground, aboveground, canopy, and sky levels. T...

Henning Larsen details computational design process behind mass timber 'World of Volvo' center

2023-05-02T17:30:00-04:00

Henning Larsen and Volvo are working on the design of a new consumer-facing experience center called The World of Volvo ahead of its debut early next year in the automaker’s hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Henning Larsen computational designer Leonardo Castaman recently explained on LinkedIn some details related to the project team’s seven-step process using the Kangaroo and Galapagos plugins on Grasshopper to create the wooden superstructure of the 236,800-square-foot building.

The design incorporates computer-fabricated glulam beams and columns with locally-sourced CLT floor slabs. The materials were selected to promote a circular economy in line with the philosophical notion of “Allemansrätten,” a Swedish concept that essentially translates to “leave nothing behind.”

Image courtesy Henning Larsen via LinkedIn

Castaman describes his workflow on the project as follows:

First, the plane...

A ‘pillar in the reconciliation of Indigenous and Western ways of living and building’ — design reveals a new public library in Saskatchewan

2022-10-12T21:21:00-04:00

A joint team of Formline, Chevalier Morales, and Montreal’s Architecture49 has revealed its design for a new library project in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

The firms say the project is conceived as a “pillar in the reconciliation of Indigenous and Western ways of living and building” that will serve as an important precedent as the first “major public building” in an area with the highest ratio of Indigenous residents of any other major city in the country.

The new central library will link to the nearby Remai Modern Gallery and several small shops near the site to form a small new cultural hub along Second Avenue. The design team says it was directed by the city’s relatively low park-to-person ratio in the selection of form, materials, and the arrangement of public spaces in and around the 142,000-square-foot structure. Overall, some 45% of the site will include landscaped public spaces punctuated by the building's oval footprint.

Image courtesy Formline, Chevalier Morales, and Archi...

New CTBUH study on tall mass timber gives us a look at the impacts of the material industry-wide

2022-05-26T13:37:00-04:00

A new study from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has revealed important statistics that provide a clearer picture of the present state of tall mass timber construction across the globe.

There are now a total of 66 completed mass timber projects worldwide totaling of least 8 stories or higher. Nearly two-thirds (64% or 54 buildings) of all projects are residential, while office buildings account for 19% (16 buildings), and the mixed-use typology currently makes up 14% (12 buildings). Including projects that are currently under construction or proposed, there were 139 total projects matching the audit’s criteria.

Illustration courtesy of CTBUH

In terms of height, 12 of the 20 tallest structures are located in Europe. Scandinavia had 4 of those, while the UK and Australia had 3 and 5 apiece, respectively. Additionally, the height of the world’s tallest timber building, now officially the soon-to-be-completed 25-story Ascent tower in Milwaukee, has tripled in jus...

What's it like inside the world’s newest mass timber developments?

2022-04-20T12:46:00-04:00

Above our heads, the pillars and struts of the pergola looked like the masts of a gigantic ship—their edges rounded, like huge pencils, to diminish the force of winds that can pummel the tower. Between the heft of the wooden building and the evanescence of the fog encircling it, the atmosphere was seductively calming—as long as my mind did not linger on the metaphor of the matchbox.

The New Yorker takes us on a whirlwind tour of some of the higher-profile mass timber developments that have debuted in recent years. Stops include the future site of Henning Larsen’s Fælledby development outside Copenhagen, the Oslotre As-designed seven-story Valle Wood, and Voll Arkitekter’s 18-story, 280-foot Mjøstårnet tower near Oslo, which is now officially the world’s tallest new timber building.

Mjøstårnet’s developer Arthur Buchardt was on hand to speak to its significance relative to the future of the industry as well as the role timber building could play in his country’s changing economy.

“Most of us already live in wooden buildings — only not so tall,” he explained to reporter Rebecca Mead. “Norway is an oil nation, but the oil will end. All the politicians talk about ‘green change’ — we must do something else that must be environmentally friendly, and we must use local resources. I thought I could build something like this, as an answer.”

...

Tall Mass Timber: More than just a way of decarbonizing the construction sector

2020-01-20T17:58:00-05:00

There is cross-laminated timber (CLT), which looks like inch-thick strips of heartwood arranged like a Jenga set to produce a block that is pretty much the definition of the word solid. Or glu-lam, used to make structural beams that are like extremely strong plywood, and LVL—laminated veneer lumber—which makes excellent heavy beams and had formed the skeleton of the apartment building.

Saul Elbein dives into the growing industry of mass timber and talks with architects, both abroad and in the U.S., that are already using the new materials to design buildings of today.

Elbein also chats with those imaging cities of the future, full of "standardized, customizable, mid-rise apartments and office buildings, largely made of modular mass timber, that developers could order to spec like IKEA sofas."

'World’s Tallest Timber Building' now officially ratified after CTBUH height criteria update

2019-03-14T18:20:00-04:00

[CTBUH] has verified the completion of Mjøstårnet, a mixed-use building in Brumunddal, Norway that now holds the unique title of the “World’s Tallest Timber Building.” At 85.4 meters, it is also the third-tallest building in Norway and the country’s tallest with mixed functions. This news coincides with the amendment of the CTBUH Height Criteria – the official guidelines upon which tall buildings are measured – to include timber as a recognized structural material.

The 18-story wooden structure Mjøstårnet (Mjøsa Tower) near Oslo, Norway popularly earned the title "World’s Tallest Timber Building" back in September 2018 when it structurally topped out. But it wasn't until a recent update of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat's height criteria guidelines, that what truly constituted a 'timber' structural system was clearly defined.

The revised criteria for timber structures now requires that "both the main vertical/lateral structural elements and the floor spanning system must be constructed from timber. An ‘all-timber’ structure may include the use of localized non-timber connections between timber elements. A building of timber construction with a floor system of concrete planks, or concrete slab on top of timber beams, is still considered a ‘timber’ structure, as the concrete elements are not acting as the primary structure."

The world's tallest timber tower structurally tops out in Norway

2018-09-06T14:24:00-04:00

Construction workers yesterday installed the final beam at Mjøstårnet (Mjøsa Tower), a wooden skyscraper project in the Norwegian town of Brumunddal, just north of Oslo. Now structurally topped out, the 18-story structure stands 85.4 meters tall and is officially the world's tallest timber tower.

Image: Mjøstårnet on Facebook

Once fully completed in March 2019, the tower designed by Trondheim-based Voll Arkitekter will house apartments, a hotel, and offices on 11,300 square meters (121,630 square feet).

Image: Mjøstårnet on Facebook

Photo: Anti / Jens Haugen, image via Mjøstårnet on Facebook

Image: Mjøstårnet on Facebook

Learn more about Mjøsa Tower in Archinect's previous coverage.