The oldest material found on earth seems also to be innovative. In the last years woods became more popular in the use with high-rise. The highest wooden building in the world right now is Mjøstårnet. Other high-rise buildings build with wood are located in Tokyo, Shanghai, Vancouver, London and Rotterdam.
Wood as resource in construction
Wood is a very sustainable resource, it reproduces itself very fast in nature which makes it an inexhaustible resource. There where trees have been cut, it could take 20 till 120 years before petroleum and ore have been developed. Wood is environmentally friendly, trees take in CO2 and turns it in to wood, it’s also circular because it can be digested by nature. Wood also has an isolating value, something what the construction world can use heavily. The isolating value of wood is 50x higher than concrete, 400x higher than steel and 1770x higher than aluminum. Wood is a very strong resource in ratio with its weight. With the use of different kinds of techniques like laminating or CLT wood would be able to handle high stress and could be used in the construction of the building. After all wood gives a warm feeling and nice smell, this gives people a trusting vibe.
Building efficiently with wood
Because of the weight of wood it makes it easy to use in high-rise, lifting it up with a crane goes a lot easier in comparison with heavier alternatives. Because of this larger numbers and parts can be lifted. Another advantage of wood is that it can be processed really easily, they can be transported like puzzle pieces, and can be put together easily.
Mjøstårnet
The Mjøstårnet is the highest wooden building in the world at the moment. A high-rise building of 85,4 meters high, it has office space, accommodations and apartments. The construction and facades are made of wood. The construction consists of laminated columns and beams. The flooring on the lower half of the levels are made of prefabricated wood, on the top half they are made out of concrete, they have done this to counteract the wind, otherwise the building would not stay stable enough to stand. All the wood used in this project are made of local wood, this means that the wood doesn’t need to be transported far and doesn’t release as much carbon dioxide and nitrogen.
Future
Cities all over the world keep expanding and getting more overcrowded, the need of a sustainable way to resolve this issue is getting more important by the day. Wooden high-rise can play a big and important role in a solution.
