White Arkitekter's new mass timber tower opens as the world's third tallest wooden building

2021-09-28T17:23:00-04:00

A new Swedish tower is pushing boundaries for mass timber design in an effort to create a “public living room” for one small city just south of the Arctic Circle.

The Sara Cultural Centre is the second tallest wooden building in any Scandinavian country and the third tallest in the world behind Voll Arkitekter’s 18-story, 280-foot Mjøstårnet near Oslo and the 276-foot HoHo Tower in Vienna.

Located in Skellefteå, the 246-foot Centre plays host to an art gallery, museum, library, and theater in a multi-volume carbon-negative building that also features welcoming amenities like a high-rise restaurant, hotel, and spa.

Image courtesy White Arkitekter

Two different construction systems were developed by White Arkitekter to complete the tower using a combination of glue-laminated columns and beams together with CLT cores, modules, shear walls that work together to distribute the shear load using as little material as possible. According to the architect, the combination of the two systems...

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White Arkitekter's new mass timber tower opens as the world's third tallest wooden building