Archinect - News

Heatherwick Studio tops out UK pharma hub with curving timber structure

2024-04-25T11:56:00-04:00

Heatherwick Studio has offered a construction update on its design for the UCB Windlesham Surrey Science Research Hub in the United Kingdom. When completed, the building will serve as a hub for the Belgian biopharmaceutical company UCB.

In new photos released by the firm, the project's cross-laminated timber structure can be seen following its recent topping out. The CLT structure, described by Heatherwick Studio as “possibly one of the most complicated CLT structures in Europe,” took two years of design and eight months of construction to deliver. The novelty of the structure comes from its curved form, which serves not only as the main structure but the feature finish for the building.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Heatherwick Studio (@officialheatherwickstudio)

Designed in collaboration with executive architect Veretec, the three-story timber extension will be partially submerged into the site’s existing campus, connecting various wings of UCB’s R...

Henning Larsen’s ‘forest canopy-like’ World of Volvo opens in Sweden

2024-04-16T11:52:00-04:00

The Henning Larsen-designed World of Volvo has opened in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Housed under an expressive timber canopy, the 237,000-square-foot building will serve as an experience center for the car brand Volvo, designed around “Scandinavian values of freedom of movement, access to nature, and openness and inclusion.”

Image credit: Rasmus Hjortshoj

The main timber structure is formed of glulam and cross-laminated timber, designed as three tree-trunk-like columns that fan out to carry the entire load of the roof while “enveloping visitors in a welcoming forest-like canopy.” The center’s round structure is intended to encourage visitors to create their own journeys through the building’s interior and exterior.

Image credit: Rasmus Hjortshoj

Inside, a series of spaces are contained to host cultural events, talks, and conferences, accommodating up to 1,100 people. Anchoring the structure is a 485,000-square-foot exhibition space...

Architecture's top green projects and sustainability innovations in 2023

2023-12-27T20:28:00-05:00

Wrapping up a year in the wake of the recently concluded COP28 UN climate summit that resulted in, well, mild levels of agreement on the role of fossil fuels, it is possible to sense a slightly increased urgency toward this most pressing planetary issue on a high-minded diplomatic level. As we're quickly approaching the quarter mark of the 21st century, however, much more concrete action and innovation in various sectors of the AEC domain is needed — and is already happening — on the ground level as well, as we have seen in our reporting on Archinect.

Continuing with our 2023 Year in Review series, let's take a look back at some of the story highlights focusing on decarbonization efforts, material research, policy implementation, and successful applications of sustainability principles this year.

Building Electrification

Energy-efficient heat pump technology is gaining in popularity. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Øyvind Holmstad.

The process of gradually phasing out fossil f...

TenBerke completes hybrid‑CLT residential hall design at Brown University

2023-11-16T12:18:00-05:00

TenBerke has finished work on its two-hall dormitory project for Brown University.

The Brook Street Residence Halls project is part of the university’s plan to expand its on-campus housing offerings and was completed using a hybrid steel and cross-laminated timber structure. Brown says their realization creates an important new connection to the east side's Fox Point neighborhood, adding to its capacity to interface with the community of Providence while likewise maintaining its holistic sustainability strategy.

Image © Chris Cooper / ArchExplorer

“We set out to create a project that truly feels accessible in terms of how the buildings meet the ground. That means entries that are visible, a relationship to the street, a layering of landscape and plantings adjacent to the sidewalk, a nice tree canopy — design aspects that create a sense of vitality and activity that are appropriate to the neighborhood and the University,” Noah Biklen, the project’s lead and a Senior Principal at TenB...

SGA designs concept for ‘New England’s first all-timber frame laboratory development’

2023-11-03T11:50:00-04:00

SGA has unveiled details of its proposed mass timber life sciences building, which seeks to demonstrate the potential of the construction method in future research buildings. Taking an urban site in one of Boston’s leading life sciences clusters as a test case, the team believes their concept offers “the true potential for the first mass timber research development in New England.”

Image credit: SGA

The test case sees two proposed buildings that create an “experiential research community” while being designed along three pillars of sustainability, resiliency, and construction efficiency. A nine-story building is centered on offering a flexible and efficient research environment, while the second four-story, hospitality-inspired facility delivers on-site amenities alongside an incubator space for start-up and early-stage research companies.

Image credit: SGA

The mass timber concept deploys industry-standard dimensions for laboratory bay spacing, meets the requirements for structural an...

A ‘textural and reflective building skin’ wraps the University of Washington’s new Health Sciences Education Building

2023-10-12T14:08:00-04:00

A team comprising The Miller Hull Partnership, The S/L/A/M Collaborative, and Lease Crutcher Lewis has completed the new Health Sciences Education Building at the University of Washington in Seattle. Designed using a ‘culture of care’ philosophy, the scheme seeks to provide a “shared physical space that sparks innovation and creativity among students.”

Image credit: Moris Moreno

Marking a new entrance to the university’s South Campus, the Health Sciences Education Building is the first project to be delivered as part of a wider campus master plan. While the existing campus prioritizes an indoor circulation system between buildings, the new scheme seeks to pull people outdoors and introduce a new network of accessible pathways, murals, and sculptural public art, as well as outdoor seating areas.

Image credit: Moris Moreno

The building is constructed of a hybrid system using steel, concrete, and cross-laminated timber. Inside, the incl...

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...

World’s tallest full-scale building earthquake test takes place at UC San Diego

2023-05-10T15:09:00-04:00

UC San Diego has hosted the tallest full-scale seismic building test on an earthquake simulator. The LEVER Architecture-designed 10-story building, made of cross-laminated timber, was tested on what the organizers say is the world’s largest outdoor shake table.

Image credit: UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering

Tests on the structure began in late April, where a shake table simulated earthquake motions recorded during prior earthquakes covering a range of magnitude 4 to magnitude 8 on the Richter scale. The range also included various iterations of the 6.7 magnitude Northridge Earthquake which struck Los Angeles in 1994.

Image credit: UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering

The shake table used in the test has been designed to “reproduce the full 3D ground motions that occur during earthquakes” including a movement of up to six degrees of freedom. Atop the table is what the team has dubbed the Tallwood building: A 116-foot-tall cross-laminated timber structure roughly one-fifth...

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...

Mass timber pedestrian bridge rises at Toronto's George Brown College

2023-04-28T14:26:00-04:00

Canadian construction company PCL Construction is celebrating a major milestone in the construction of George Brown College’s new Limberlost Place on Toronto’s waterfront, with the installation of a mass timber pedestrian bridge.

Standing 65 feet above street level, the structure connects level five of Limberlost Place to level six of the college’s Daphne Cockwell Center for Health Sciences. The 10-story Limberlost Place is reportedly set to be the first mass timber, net-zero carbon emissions institutional building of its kind in Ontario. It was designed by a team consisting of Moriyama and Teshima Architects and Acton Ostry Architects. The building is expected to be completed by 2024 and will be open for classes in January 2025.

Video via PCL Construction on YouTube

The pedestrian bridge stretches approximately 70 feet and is made up of two glue-laminated trusses and four cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels. Individual CLT pieces were prefabricated at an off-site location befor...

Deborah Berke Partners designs a new all-electric, hybrid steel and cross-laminated timber residential hall for Brown University

2023-02-20T15:18:00-05:00

In preparation for the Fall 2023 academic term, Brown University shares details of its new Deborah Berke Partners-designed Brook Street Residence Halls.

Located at the southeastern edge of the University’s 143-acre historic urban campus, the 125,00-square-foot development has room for 353 beds interwoven with green spaces that enhances the campus’ connection to nearby existing structures and Providence’s Fox Point neighborhood while providing capabilities for year-round stormwater retention.

Image courtesy of Deborah Berke Partners.

With its brick and terracotta material palette, the new halls are beholden to the older architecture of the campus and of the Federal style-rich city in passing. The split-volume residences come beset with strategic social spaces and a healthy influx of strategic natural light corridors, kitchenettes, and study nooks, especially when compared to other recent student housing proposals across the country of considerable size. This is both an all-electric an...

PietriArchitectes designs 15-unit social housing project using cross-laminated timber

2023-01-01T08:00:00-05:00

Paris’ PietriArchitectes has shared images of their new 15-unit social housing development in the northern suburb of Aubervilliers.

Completed towards the end of last year, 36 Ferragus is the key cog in a requalification operation for the city’s center. Currently, about two-thirds of Aubervilliers residents inhabit some form of social housing, and so the development provides relief in what is to some a frequent powder keg for related issues.

Opting for pre-fabricated components and wood as its main building material for the extension project, the studio worked within a site that’s part of the larger Heurtault block of the ZAC Moutier agglomeration to adapt a disused existing early-20th century residential structure and garage.

Image: Hugo Hébrard

Per the architects: "This game of opposition between old and new constitutes the soul of the project. On the street side, the extension is set back from the preserved construction, providing inhabitants with space to access the buildings. A ...

Mass timber rose to new heights in 2022

2022-12-24T08:00:00-05:00

In 2022, hardly a week passed on Archinect without the hottest construction material of the year making the news: Mass timber was everywhere — in novel conceptual proposals, competition-winning entries, experimental school projects, and, increasingly so, in completed, real-life, and often record-shattering buildings.

And for a good reason. With the world finally realizing the built environment's profound impact on global carbon emissions, more and more architects (and clients!) started ditching the long-time darling concrete due to its abysmal environmental performance and favoring carbon-trapping timber products, which have also been attributed to increased building comfort for its occupants.

As part of Archinect's ongoing 2022 Year in Review series, let's take a look at some of the mass timber story highlights in our news this year.

A selection of completed buildings this year

Ascent tower when it structurally topped out in December 2021. Image courtesy Thornton Tomasetti/Twitte...

Foster + Partners reveal cross-laminated timber scheme in London

2022-11-24T12:18:00-05:00

Foster + Partners have been granted approval for the construction of a new mixed-use cross-laminated timber development in London. Named The William, the scheme will become one of London’s largest timber developments, and Foster + Partners’ first timber office building in the city.

Image courtesy of Foster + Partners

As reported by The Architect’s Journal, the process will see the demolition of a four-story 1950s housing block to be replaced by a pair of new seven-story mixed-use buildings. Both buildings will contain street-level retail, with one holding 32 residential units, and the other holding 90,000 square feet of office space.

Image courtesy of Foster + Partners

Inside, the scheme will feature a double-height lobby containing art installations, as well as terraces and rooftop spaces overlooking Hyde Park. Meanwhile, 11 of the 32 residential homes have been earmarked as affordable units. According to the team, the buildings will achieve BREEAM Outstanding once completed, and wi...

Inside LMN Architects’ exposed mass timber hall at the University of Washington

2022-11-03T11:25:00-04:00

Work has been completed on the LMN Architects-designed Founders Hall at the University of Washington Foster School of Business. The Seattle-based firm, who recently featured on our Meet Your Next Employer series, used the 84,800-square-foot building to create “a new hub for community, entrepreneurship, and innovation” while incorporating architectural principles of sustainability and harmonization with the wider campus.

Photo credit: Tim Griffith

Now completed, the building becomes the first fully mass timber building on the University of Washington campus. In addition to lowering the scheme’s embodied carbon footprint, the use of Douglas fir was also leveraged to create a “warm and inviting” atmosphere within the school. On the exterior, timber is blended with masonry to both reflect the material palette of the surrounding campus, and “hint at the experience” inside.

Photo credit: Tim Griffith

Internally, the building is composed of three volumes hosting student collaboration spaces,...

This new LA project showcases the application of hybrid cross-laminated timber construction and adaptive reuse

2022-10-13T19:54:00-04:00

Los Angeles and Portland-based architecture firm West of West is currently working on a new creative office community in Hollywood, California. The studio's 6344 Fountain project integrates hybrid cross-laminated timber (CLT) construction within an adaptive reuse development.

According to the architects, the design is modeled after "the intimate garden bungalows of historic movie studio lots." Project renderings show a four-story, 60,000-square-foot office building that incorporates an existing 20,000-square-foot commercial structure. Aiming to break away from the "traditional monolithic office building mass," the design team proceeded with a stepped building profile.

Project rendering of 6344 Fountain, courtesy of West of West.

Project rendering, courtesy of West of West.

Located at the building's north-facing facade will be a "grand stair" that's placed where the new and existing buildings will meet. Made of Fortina, this extruded aluminum material has an imprinted texture resembl...

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...

Construction begins on SHoP's record-setting Atlassian HQ hybrid timber tower

2022-09-21T17:42:00-04:00

SHoP has begun work on the 39-story Australian Atlassian HQ project it says will eventually hold the title of the world’s tallest hybrid timber tower upon its completion in 2026.

The project for local Sydney developers Dexus combines mass timber elements with a diagrid steel tube exoskeleton and staggered glass envelope to achieve a 50% reduction in carbon emissions throughout the total 112,000-square-meter (1.2 million-square-foot) structure. It is envisioned as the anchor of Sydney’s new Tech Central district and will run completely on renewable energy sources according to Built, the Australian company serving as one of two main contractors for the $1.4 billion construction.

Image courtesy of Dexus

SHoP explains: “The tower is organized as six discrete but interconnected ‘habitats.’ Each four-level habitat is a freestanding mass-timber construction supported within the efficient steel exoskeleton. A naturally-ventilated zone, akin to an outdoor garden, is located at each level.”

I...

Glass curtain wall begins to wrap around LEVER Architecture's hybrid mass timber building in Los Angeles

2022-08-10T14:38:00-04:00

LEVER Architecture’s 843 N Spring Street is nearing completion as new images have been released depicting its glass curtain wall going up on the hybrid mass timber office building.

Located directly across from LA’s Chinatown Metro stop, the 145,000-square-foot, five-story building is set to be one of the first major Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) office buildings in Los Angeles. It comprises roughly 82,000 square feet of 3- and 5-ply CLT panels and concrete topping slab, with exposed steel columns and beams. In addition, exposed timber panels cantilever over the balconies.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by LEVER Architecture (@leverarchitecture)

According to LEVER, this approach has resulted in an estimated reduction of 1,357 metric tons of carbon compared to traditional building methods, the equivalent of keeping 287 cars off the road for a year.

Joining the building’s office space is 7,000 square feet of street-level and second-floor retail space. It ...

Five featured architecture jobs in mass timber design

2022-07-20T13:02:00-04:00

Mass timber projects continue to grow in popularity with architecture firms strengthening the application of the sustainable building material in residential and commercial sectors.

As the technical know-how within the industry steadily proliferates, we're highlighting four architecture firms with project specialties in mass timber design and construction currently hiring on Archinect Jobs. From junior to senior-level positions, the following selection of firms is looking for the right candidates to join their teams.

LEVER Architecture seeks a Technical Architect
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Details: "LEVER Architecture is a mid-sized architecture firm based in Portland, Oregon, and Los Angeles, California. We are seeking candidates to contribute to and grow with our award-winning office dedicated to design research and impactful projects across many different scales, regions, and typologies. The firm brings international experience and design excellence to a diverse range of building ...

A new tall mass timber proposal is heating up the race to the top in Toronto

2022-07-15T13:02:00-04:00

Around the same time the new world record holder for tall mass timber buildings — the 25-story Ascent tower — is making its much-awaited debut in Milwaukee, another North American design proposal has been revealed in Toronto that would surmount the historic milestone by a total of six stories if approved.

The proposed 31-story residential tower is being floated by 26-year-old developer Jackey Chen, who says an impressive 80% of the building’s 494 total apartment units will be made affordable under the city’s Open Door program, with project costs totaling between $75 and $80 million. Toronto studio ICON Architects will serve as the building’s designer.

The development would entail the preservation of three semi-detached heritage buildings located in front of its would-be podium and take around two years to complete following an anticipated start of construction sometime before 2025. The proposed plan would join a list of at least five other mass timber developments in the GTA that in...

New timber building by Haz Arquitectura employs a range of sustainable features to reduce its carbon footprint

2022-05-27T14:50:00-04:00

A new multi-use complex made nearly entirely of wood has been introduced to Barcelona’s Trinitat Vella district.

Called the Center for Community Life, the new public building will form part of a community facility hub for the districts of San Andreu and Nou Barris set to be built in the coming years. It will house various social services and bodies, including a Women’s Information and Attention Point, along with community housing and homes for young people and the elderly. The facility is the work of architects Manuel Sánchez-Villanueva and Carol Beuter of Haz Arquitectura, a studio with expertise in the construction of public and private spaces in the health, cultural, and social sectors, as well as offices and sports amenities.

Image Copyright José Hevia

Because this is the first building in the future complex, the firm wanted to avoid creating a major contrast with the upcoming projects. Therefore, they opted for a simple, abstract outer design that opens up to a future plaza tha...

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...

Check out the process behind Apex Plaza, the new tallest mass timber building on the East Coast

2022-05-05T16:17:00-04:00

William McDonough + Partners' new mass timber Apex Plaza project recently celebrated its completion in Charlottesville, Virginia. The 187,000-square-foot structure is now considered to be the largest such CLT project in the eastern United States.

Its completion is a major milestone for the use of the increasingly popular material in the U.S. and marks the end of a journey begun twenty years ago when the firm published a text from McDonough and EPEA International founder Michael Braungart outlining the “possibility of developing healthy and creatively interactive relationships between human settlements and the natural world.”

Construction images provided by the firm tell a narrative of its design features and the process behind McDonough's concepts of "Building like a Tree," "Design for Disassembly," and "The Five Goods." The timber products you can see below are said to be sustainably harvested and Cradle to Cradle-certifie...

Henning Larsen unveils new mass timber 'World of Volvo' center in Gothenburg

2022-05-03T12:58:00-04:00

Henning Larsen has revealed their design for a new experience center called World of Volvo in the Swedish automaker’s hometown of Gothenburg.

Touting a “deep connection” to the design heritage and rich natural landscape of Scandinavia, the massive 236,800-square-foot new facility offers itself as the combined home of Volvo Group and Volvo Cars and will function as the host for a slate of events, including exhibitions, talks, conferences, and music as well as dining and retail, according to Volvo’s CEO Magnus Wrahme.

Visualization by Kvant-1

Henning Larsen’s design is based on the Swedish concept of “Allemansrätten,” a kind of folkway that endorses individual free movement and a delicate consideration for their place in nature similar to the American environmentalist idum “leave no trace.”

Visualization by Kvant-1

Its circular form expresses an empathy towards these two interconnected tenets and is composed of computer-fabricated glulam timber reinforced by internal metal connectors w...

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.”

...

Virginia Tech team completes world-first observation tower with innovative low-carbon timber

2022-04-20T11:51:00-04:00

A team of students and faculty at Virginia Tech has completed an innovative observation tower in rural Virginia. The design and delivery of the project saw the development and certification of a new custom timber product, off-site prefabrication, and the discovery of the ruins of a historic building.

Photography by Kay Edge and Edward Becker

The project, formally titled the New River Train Observation Tower, was delivered to the city of Radford, Virginia. In 2018, the city commissioned Virginia Tech to design and build a train observation tower that would create publicly accessible views over the city’s New River and a historically significant railroad bridge. With a budget of $100,000, the city requested that the tower used clean-tech, low-carbon building products to showcase the city’s transition away from its industrial past.

Photography by Kay Edge and Edward Becker

The student/faculty team initially sought to construct the tower from cross-laminated timber (CLT) due to its durab...

Can the architecture industry deliver a carbon-neutral building revolution?

2022-04-15T18:40:00-04:00

There’s ever-growing panoply of efficiency measures — better insulation, improved heating and air-conditioning, less-polluting appliances — that could help the building sector rapidly decarbonize. By 2030, almost all new buildings could consume zero net energy — net meaning there’s some give and take from the grid to equal zero use. That’s a big deal, especially with a corollary switch to electrified forms of transportation.

The list of new green technologies is long and includes innovations like low-carbon concrete, cross-laminated timber, and living wall systems that have all developed into scalable products over the past ten years.

So far, big-name firms like Gensler, Lake|Flato, and KieranTimberlake have been among their many evangalizers, with high-profile projects like the White Arkitekter-designed Sara Cultural Centre, Arup's recently completed HAUT residential building, or the Sonoma Academy Janet Durgin Guild & Commons by WRNS Studio serving as the new standard-bearers in an industry seemingly reluctant to adopt its own rhetoric as to the need for systematic change.

The residential sector is another key area of focus if the 2030 ambit mentioned above is to ever truly become a reality. There is quite a bit of reason for hope in this area, too, with more and more governments providing fundin...

Arup completes the Netherlands' tallest timber-hybrid residential building

2022-03-31T19:16:00-04:00

Arup has designed and engineered the Netherlands’ tallest timber-hybrid residential building.

Completed this year, HAUT is part of the country’s commitment to becoming climate-neutral by 2050, in which the use of timber as a building material has been identified as one of the most effective ways to accelerate decarbonization. As noted by Arup, in 2021, over 80 Dutch companies signed the Green Deal covenant Houtbouw of the Metropoolregio Amsterdam. With this, the nation's capital and most populous city is committing to the goal of building at least one in five buildings using primarily timber from 2025 onwards.

Previously on Archinect: Arup, TEAM V to build world's tallest timber residential building in Amsterdam

HAUT was conceived in 2016 with the aim of being of both sustainable and high architectural quality. Situated near the Amstel river, the structure is one of the tallest timber-hybrid buildings in the world, standing 21 floors tall at nearly 240 feet. It was also certified B...

The U.S. government's wildfire prevention program could have unintended benefits for architects and the mass timber industry

2022-01-22T09:00:00-05:00

This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service announced a $50 billion plan to fight wildfires. The goal is, in fact, to reduce wildfires. But one of the side effects may be a huge infusion of ecologically harvested wood into the supply chain for building materials. For architects, this firefighting tool could also be a new source of carbon-sequestering wood for sustainable building projects.

The timber industry is currently under tremendous strain to meet demands as suppliers face labor shortages that have triggered high prices for their clients, who are increasingly looking to build bigger and taller buildings using what is considered to be a more sustainable material.

The recent supply chain issues are making the rehabilitation program a windfall for the increasing number of firms in desperate need of timber that is at the same time ethically sourced and environmentally friendly. The Forest Service says it will treat about 75 million acres under the ten-year plan, which should produce about $150 billion worth of timber stock, according to pricing data taken from forest2market.com. Some have said they are optimistic for the changes it might entail for the industry’s overall decarbonization goals, valuing it for its potential to force architects to think more critically about incorporating the material into their designs.

“Oftentimes we’re trying to fit the forest and...