A wooden skyscraper that Austrian architects say will be the tallest of its kind in the world is to be built in Vienna next year. The 84-metre (276ft) HoHo project in the Seestadt Aspern area, one of Europe’s largest urban development sites, will house a hotel, apartments, restaurant, wellness centre and offices, and is expected to cost about €60m (£44m). — The Guardian

[...] "wooden textiles" by designer Elisa Strozyk are a beautiful and surprisingly simple rethinking of the idea of a textile—and they have some interesting implications for terrain modeling and even gaming [...] Strozyk writes that she wanted to find "a new tactile experience" for wood, which she achieved by producing wooden tiles that "are then attached to a textile base. Depending on the geometry and size of the tiles each design shows a different behavior regarding flexibility and mobility." — BLDGBLOG

The U.S. Department of Agriculture officially launched their U.S. Tall Wood Building Prize Competition. As the first step of a new USDA and forest industry initiative, the competition...aims to showcase the architectural and commercial feasibility of advanced wood products in tall building construction in order to support employment opportunities in U.S. rural communities, maintain the health and resiliency of American forests, and advance sustainability in the built environment. — bustler.net

The Swiss architect Gion A Caminada is something of a cult figure. Now in his 50s, he's spent much of his working life since the late 1970s practising out of a small village called Vrin in the canton of Graubünden. [...]

Caminada's idea was to boost the place with a collection of well-designed and functional private and communal buildings, among them the Aussichtsturm Reussdelta, an ornithologists' observation tower, and Waldhuette, a woodland cabin containing a school classroom. — Phaidon

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. — bustler.net

In keeping with the designer's forest-themed interior motif, a pair of homesteader cabins from the late 1800s are being installed in Twitter's new digs in the historic Western Furniture Exchange and Merchandise Mart building, a 1937 art deco landmark on Market Street. [...]

In this spirit of reuse and reclamation, Lundberg saw the cabins as a novel way of breaking up the wide open spaces of a gutted floor in the old furniture mart that will become a casual dining area. — Marin Independent Journal

Actor Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation, which has built 100 energy-efficient new homes in the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Lower 9th Ward, is considering legal action against the manufacturer of an innovative glass-infused wood that was used in some of the homes’ outdoor steps and front porches. The wood has begun rotting, despite being guaranteed for 40 years, a Make It Right spokeswoman said. — theneworleansadvocate.com

Berg | C.F. Møller and DinellJohansson recently won the competition to design a future residential landmark for Stockholm. Hosted by Swedish real estate group HSB, three competing teams were required to propose three innovative residential buildings for three central locations in the city. The winners will work with HSB to develop and build the residential complex by 2023, in time for HSB's 100th anniversary. — bustler.net

The TREE|HUB is a timber tree house built 3 meters off the ground in a backyard in Peckham, London. Werk Studio—a collaborative team of design students from Goldsmiths-University of London—initiated the non-profit project for the London Design Festival as a pavilion for hosting a conversation series with featured designers until Sept. 22. — bustler.net

Swedish Virserum Art Museum has announced the 2013 winners of Architecture of Necessity, the triennial for sustainable community building. Over the recent years, the manifesto, written in protest of a lack of ambition for sustainable community building, has developed into both an exhibition and an international triennial for sustainable community building. — bustler.net