Archinect - News

What’s holding up mass timber's ascent in Chicago?

2024-07-30T08:00:00-04:00

The Tribune recently asked why mass timber construction is so lagging in Chicago while nearby Milwaukee and other cities in the Pacific Northwest and Europe are making strides to embrace the movement by altering their building codes and fire safety regulations.

Even after an amenable update to its citywide code in 2020, forces such as the collective memory of the 1871 Great Chicago Fire are one such impediment to the development of new wooden designs. A two-year-old residential project from Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture — a rare approved proposal over five stories — appears to have stalled. The DOB says it considers additional exceptions to the limit "on a case-by-case basis," but there remains an impression it is too late to the table, leaving the city known for its architectural innovations disappointingly out of the vanguard while a new race to the top unfolds.

Lina Ghotmeh announces design for Bahrain's National Pavilion at Expo Osaka 2025

2024-06-17T12:01:00-04:00

Lina Ghotmeh’s design for the official National Pavilion of the Kingdom of Bahrain for Expo 2025 Osaka has been revealed along with details of what she calls a “celebration of the bilateral relations” between the Gulf state and Expo’s host nation.

The Lebanese-born French architect’s follow-up to the 2023 Serpentine Pavilion in London offers a highlight of the Kingdom’s distinct maritime heritage and history as a major regional port of trade.

Image: © Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture

What hails as an artful reinterpretation of ancient Bahraini boat-building methods will take shape as a timber structure whose outermost shell is made out of aluminum. Open and porous, the design incorporates natural ventilation methods Its interiors are set to be provided by the award-winning Bahrain-based Shepherd Studio and center around a space dedicated to commerce and promoting the country’s “forward-looking” economy.

Image: © Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture

The pavilion will be realized within the “Empower...

Sou Fujimoto's wooden Grand Ring for Expo 2025 Osaka is taking shape

2024-05-15T12:42:00-04:00

The Sou Fujimoto-designed wooden Grand Ring roof for the upcoming Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, is coming together just under a year before the fair officially opens to the public on April 13th, 2025.

As detailed in an earlier construction update, the structure will be realized at 1,969 feet (600 meters) in diameter and serve as the main circulatory route for visitors to access the exhibition’s 161 total participating countries and locations.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Expo2025 大阪・関西万博 (@expo2025japan)

A recent press announcement mentions: “With one year to go until Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai Japan welcomes the world to Osaka on 13 April 2025, Japan is ready to bring the international community together for six months of collaboration, creativity, innovation, wisdom, dialogue, and action. In an age where humanity is facing a myriad of unprecedented challenges, the need to unite and cooperate, to make genuine, positive, and sustainable change has never...

Sou Fujimoto shares new photos of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai master plan under construction

2024-04-01T15:46:00-04:00

Sou Fujimoto’s studio has shared new construction images of the forthcoming Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai's The Grand Roof circular wooden container structure, a year ahead of the start of the six-month fair, which begins on April 13th, 2025.

The enormous structure is 1,969 feet (600 meters) in diameter and will serve as the main circulatory route for the exhibition, which includes 161 total participating countries/locations.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sou Fujimoto (@sou_fujimoto)

Fujimoto’s team says their design is meant to evoke a sense of "Unity in Diversity" and takes the Stage of Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto and other historic examples of Japanese timber architecture as its inspiration.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sou Fujimoto (@sou_fujimoto)

It will support an aerial walkway that affords visitors sightlines into the arena-like layout encased on the manmade Yumeshima island below and divided into three zones (Pavi...

Robots assemble a domed timber pavilion designed by the universities of Stuttgart and Freiburg

2023-08-15T11:16:00-04:00

The University of Stuttgart and the University of Freiburg have partnered on the construction of a domed timber pavilion on the University of Freiburg campus which seeks to showcase an “integrative approach to design and construction for sustainable architecture.” The livMatS Biomimetic Shell at the FIT Freiburg Center for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies will serve as a research space for the development of innovative, cross-disciplinary research ideas.

Image credit: Conné van d'Grachten

The design of the building envelope is based on the morphological principles of the plate skeleton of sea urchins, which have been researched at the University of Stuttgart for over a decade. For the pavilion, the segmental shell construction was further developed as a highly insulating structure for year-round and permanent use, with the combination of two partial shells of different shapes and sizes creating an opening skylight.

Image credit: Con...

LIN Architecture's latest wood pavilion experiment in rural China is a sight for sore minds

2022-03-11T19:08:00-05:00

LIN Architecture has returned to rural China's Jiangsu Province with an update to its previous “space experiment” into ergonomics, proxemics, and human behavior titled simply Wooden Pavilion #2.

Personal space, a respite into which individuals have the bandwith to contemplate life’s private moments, and the juxtaposed desires to incubate social interactions and create a functional unifier of community form the purpose of the 50-square-meter (538-square-foot) pavilion all based on human scale.

Photo: Songkai Liu

At a glance, its interior, defined by dramatic vantage points and radical geometries, would make an ideal backdrop for photographers and filmmakers alike. LIN wanted something more than just aesthetically pleasing: They searched for an answer to “macroscopic urban problems” that beset the small Jiangsu province village, they wanted something sumptuous, something that was unique to the environment, something that can heal.

Photo: Songkai Liu

Photo: Songkai Liu...

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...

'An experiment of archetype': LIN Architecture’s experimental wood design is all about interiority

2021-12-22T17:09:00-05:00

A groundbreaking new exploration of the physical elements of interiority comes to us in the form of an all-black wood pavilion by LIN Architecture in China's Jiangsu Province.

Labeled as a “space experiment” and located near the river on Jiangxin Island in Zhenjiang, the design forgoes functional elements to instead focus on a triad of ergonomics, proxemics, and behaviorology.

Light seeps in through the crevices, and the sea breeze blows in through them. Photo: LIU Songkai.

“The scale of human behavior is one of the concerns of this project. Research on the behavior of different people is a very good design resource for architects. By observing and understanding the behavior of people, designers can discover all kinds of possibilities of space,” its creators said, adding that “breeze, sunshine, the sound of waves, drizzle, sweet osmanthus fragrance, affecting feelings, perceptions, touch, hearing, [and] visual elements” were the true materials of their design.

Lying in front of the ...

France requires new public buildings to contain at least 50% wood

2020-02-10T18:56:00-05:00

The government of France is set to require that all new public buildings must be made at least 50% from wood or other sustainable materials from 2022 as it pushes for sustainable urban development. The local government in Paris had already pledged a greater use of natural materials such as wood, straw and hemp, and any buildings higher than eight storeys built for the 2024 Paris Olympics must be made entirely of timber.

As part of President Emmanuel Macron's climate action plan, a new measure announced by the country's Minister for Towns and Housing Julien Denormandie requires all new public buildings financed by the French State to contain at least 50% wood or other organic material, such as straw or hemp, by 2022.

Minister Denormandie also called for proposals to create 100 urban farms in priority neighborhoods, so called "green suburbs," as well as adding 90 new "eco-neighborhoods" to the already existing stock.

The "Sustainable City" plan is intended to showcase France's low-carbon ambitions in the lead-up to the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Paris.

Shigeru Ban unveils designs for Kentucky Owl Park whiskey distillery

2018-11-19T18:50:00-05:00

While Japanese whiskey distilleries are claiming top accolades for their finely crafted products these days, one decorated artisanal-minded Japanese master is bringing his craft to the heart of Bourbon country: Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban has been selected to oversee the planning and development of the "Kentucky Owl Park" experience in the Bluegrass State.

Image: Shigeru Ban Architects/Stoli Group

Global spirits enterprise Stoli Group, which had recently acquired the Kentucky Owl Bourbon brand, tasked Ban's firm to transform a 420-acre site at Cedar Creek Quarry into a must-see destination along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail—part tourist experience, part industrial facility complete with state-of-the-art distillery, bottling center, rickhouses for aging as well as office spaces for the corporation's American whiskey division.

Image: Shigeru Ban Architects/Stoli Group

"Shigeru Ban's vision for the site hearkens back to the 19th century with long-span steel structures that...

Watch these robots build a timber house structure in Switzerland

2018-03-30T14:57:00-04:00

A team of researchers from Swiss university ETH Zurich is to use robots to help assemble prefabricated timber modules into a 100 sq m, three-storey house. [...] The robots use information from a CAD model to cut and arrange the beams, then drill holes and connect them. Human workers bolt the beams together.

Photo: NCCR Digital Fabrication / Roman Keller

The Spatial Timber Assemblies robotic research project, with support from Switzerland's National Centre of Competence in Research Digital Fabrication, is the first large-scale architectural application for the construction robots at the new Robotic Fabrication Laboratory at the ETH Zurich.

Photo: NCCR Digital Fabrication / Roman Keller

"Unlike traditional timber frame construction, Spatial Timber Assemblies can manage without reinforcement plates because the required rigidity and load-bearing result from the geometric structure," the NCCR project description explains.

Photo: NCCR Digital Fabrication / Roman Keller

"Not only does this save material; it also opens up new creative possibilities. A total of six spatial, geometrically unique timber modules will be prefabricated in this way for the first time. Lorries will then transport them to the DFAB HOUSE construction site at the NEST in Dübendorf, where they will be joined to build a two-...

Win “Mass Timber: Design and Research" by Susan Jones!

2018-02-06T12:00:00-05:00

“Mass Timber Design and Research” by architect Susan Jones, the owner of Seattle-based atelierjones, is a handy resource for learning about the emergence of Mass Timber construction technology in the U.S. Thanks to publisher ORO Editions, Archinect is giving away five copies of the book to our readers!

The book presents years of research by Jones' firm, her family, and her University of Washington students. As a prominent voice in the Mass Timber dialogue in the U.S., Jones' book starts with the story of her family's sustainable forest practices that have been going on for three generations.

Tree tenderers. Photo courtesy of ORO Editions.

Vaagen Brothers Lumber. Photo courtesy of ORO Editions.

Photo courtesy of ORO Editions.

The book delves into Pacific Northwest forestry, timber and Cross-Laminated Timber manufacturing practices and carbon analysis, and carbon comparisons between standard building construction assemblies and technologies.

It concludes with model buildings designed ...

French architects are increasingly ditching concrete and embracing timber

2017-10-31T14:26:00-04:00

Spurred by concerns over climate change and the negative impacts of concrete manufacturing, architects and developers in France are increasingly turning to wood for their office towers and apartment complexes. Concrete was praised through much of the 20th century for its flexibility, functionality, and relative affordability. [...] Today, however, wood is lauded for its smaller environmental footprint and the speed with which buildings can be assembled.

Winning projects of the 2014 U.S. Wood Design Awards

2014-03-28T18:35:00-04:00

The winners of the WoodWorks 2014 U.S. Wood Design Awards sure know how to prove wood as a versatile material in architecture. Out of 140 entries -- the most the competition has ever received -- the jury selected nine of the most outstanding projects in wood architecture. During the recent ceremony at the Southeast Wood Solutions Fair in Charlotte, NC, awards were given in nine categories. Four Regional Winners were also awarded.

Check out the winning projects below

(Above) Institutional Wood Design: James and Anne Robinson Nature Center in Columbia, MD. Architect – GWWO, Inc./Architects

Green Building with Wood: Biomass Heating Plant, Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT
Architect – Centerbook Architects and Planners

Wood School Design: Cascades Academy of Central Oregon in Tumalo, OR
Architect – Hennebery Eddy Architects, Inc.

Commercial Wood Design: Federal Center South – Building 1202 in Seattle, WA
Architect – ZGF Architects LLP

Innovative Wood Engineering: Promega Feynman Center, “The Crossroads” in Madison, WA.
Architect – Uihlein‐Wilson Architects, Inc.

Beauty of Wood: Reed College Performing Arts Building in Portland, OR
Architect – Opsis Architecture

Jury's Choice Award: Habiframe, Inc. Tornado Storm Shelter in Memphis, TN
Architect – Habiframe, Inc.

Multi-Story Wood Design: Bullitt Center in Seattle, WA
Architect – The Miller Hull Partnership

Traditional Use of Wood: Muckleshoot Smokehouse in Auburn, WA...