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Building material wood

Wood – the proven building material with endless possibilities

Wood

Wood is a renewable raw material

It has been used as a building material for hundreds of years. The ability of trees and plants to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and release oxygen with the help of sunlight is elementary for all life on earth. When native wood is used in construction, the transport distances and the energy required to provide and prepare it are low. When wood products are recycled for energy at the end of their life, they can even provide more energy than was consumed in their manufacture. In the process, only as much CO2 is released as the tree absorbed or bound during its growth.

Characteristics and applications

Wood, a natural product, is a versatile and easy to work with building material. It is emission-free, of high strength and as load-bearing yet lighter than steel. It is also almost as pressure resistant as concrete and free from electrostatic charge or radiation. Due to its structure of thin cell walls with the intervening cavities, the material has low heat dissipation and is therefore the best thermal insulator compared to other structural building materials. Properly processed wood protects equally against heat, cold and sound.

Thanks to different wood species and colors, the growth location and the individual grain, wood offers an extremely wide range of applications in technical and visual terms.

Due to the high strength in relation to the weight, the variety of wood materials and the easy combination with other materials, wood becomes a universal building material that can meet almost all requirements. Wood also offers countless selection options and more than enough leeway in:

  • the type of wood
  • the wood colors
  • individual grains

in order to realize your own ideas. Every single board is unique in its kind. Wood as a building material thus has numerous properties that make it an all-round talent in construction.

The building material of the future

Wood, a renewable building material, has now also arrived in urban construction at the international level. After initial difficulties, the building regulations are still causing problems, because they are geared to conventional construction methods. There are still increasing reservations about multi-storey timber construction, especially with regard to fire protection.

Nevertheless, wood is the building material of the future. Apart from its warmth and pleasant feel in the living area, the greatest advantage of the renewable raw material is its ability to store carbon dioxide. As a result, wood ultimately has a smaller carbon footprint than most conventional building materials and has proven its worth for new buildings. This makes it possible to counteract the high consumption of energy and resources in the construction industry.

10 incredible wooden buildings

01 | New Dock A, Zurich-Kloten Airport – Switzerland

In 1985, Dock A was commissioned with pioneering technology. Now, after more than 37 years in operation, it has reached the end of its life cycle and needs to be replaced. Aircraft are getting bigger and the flight schedule is getting tighter, so that often all the stands are occupied. Passenger space is also becoming increasingly limited, which is why a new building is to be constructed at an estimated cost of CHF 700 million. Most of the passenger levels will be built from sustainable wood – a unique feature for a terminal building of this size.

There is a physical tower again
The roof of the “Raumfachwerk” project provides a view of the sky, and the tower rises up almost like a church steeple from a village square. In addition, the roof surface is covered with solar cells, so that two-thirds of the energy consumption of this building can be covered with solar energy. This brings the airport a little closer to its net-zero target in 2050.

Air traffic is not to be affected during construction
Construction is scheduled to start in 2030. The current Dock A would remain in operation, as around one-third of passengers depart or arrive here (around 100 flights). After completion of the new building north of the current dock, operations will then continue seamlessly and the old terminal will be deconstructed.

02 | Eco Park – Forest Green Rovers Football Stadium, Eastington – UK

The Forest Green Rovers Eco Park, with its 5,000 seats, will be located in a landscaped park setting. It will have space for 1,700 cars. There will be two additional soccer fields, one with a 4G all-weather surface. Around 500 trees and 1.8 km of hedges will be planted on the site to promote biodiversity.

World-renowned architectural firm Zaha Hadid designed the plans for the stadium
Despite its modern aesthetic, the Eco Park will be made almost entirely of wood – nature’s renewable building material. These cutting-edge designs reflect the ethos of being the greenest football club in the world.

03 | The Dutch Mountains, Eindhoven – Holland

Not only the Lokstadt area in Winterthur but also the railroad area of Eindhoven is undergoing a transformation. With a mixture of living, working and conference space, an internationally oriented center will be created here in the next few years. One of the first projects planned here is the “Dutch Mountains”, centrally located in the Dommel Valley. The two towers will be 100 m and 130 m high respectively. They will house offices, apartments as well as a hotel and are united by means of a common winter garden. The sculptural building will look different from every angle. A large part of the building will be made of cross-laminated timber (CLT).

A hybrid of wood and concrete
The 38-story building is being constructed using a hybrid timber construction method. Cross-laminated timber from sustainable forestry is used for a large part of the construction. The largely prefabricated elements only need to be assembled on site. Elements exposed to large loads, such as the elevator cores, are erected in steel-concrete construction.

Image source: Studio Marco Vermeulen

04 | Earth Tower, Vancouver – Canada

This building is set to revolutionize the entire construction industry. This 40-story building is intended to unite the most ambitious ecological goals of the moment. This building is intended to demonstrate how building can be done in the age of climate change.

“The Earth Tower in Vancouver”, Canada, aims to improve the quality of life in urban high-rise residential buildings with its concept. The tower’s future residents will have access to south-facing winter gardens over three floors. 12 to 18 households will each share one of these planted conservatories. An additional glass house is located on the roof terrace, which offers a grand 360-degree view of the port metropolis.

Residents will be able to experience biodiversity in public spaces. “Working with a visionary client, we are showing the world that we can – and must – build better buildings if we are to inspire real change,” say Perkins + Will architects.

This tower will be built to passive house standard using wood hybrid construction. And it is estimated to reach a height of 150 meters or 40 stories. As a result, this building will not require heating and will draw its heat requirements from the following passive sources:

  • Solar energy
  • Waste heat from people and machines

With an energy target of 40 kilowatt hours per square meter per year, the building even aims to surpass Vancouver’s new “Zero Emissions Building Plan”.

05 | HoHo, Vienna – Austria

The 84-meter-high HoHo (which stands for wooden high-rise / “Holzhochhaus in German”), consisting of 24 floors, is located in Vienna’s lakeside town of Aspern. In addition to a hotel, offices and restaurants, apartments have been built on the upper floors.
To be precise, the Hoho is not a pure timber high-rise but a hybrid building with a concrete core. The effective wood content of the building is 75%. Walls and ceilings inside the house are made of natural spruce wood. And according to the project planners, it took only one hour and 17 minutes for the entire amount of wood needed to be regrown in Austrian forests.

The HoHo in Vienna’s Urban Lakeside makes a clear statement for innovation, sustainability and modernity. It bundles the vision of an ecological and future-oriented real estate in a worldwide unprecedented wooden high-rise building. The intelligent hybrid construction method (mixed construction wood/concrete) – is not only efficiently implemented from an economical as well as economic point of view. The progressive wood technology allows the walls, ceilings and columns to remain completely unclad in spruce wood, creating a unique cozy wooden atmosphere inside.

06 | Roots, Hamburg – Germany

The 18-story residential tower is being built on a 3,200 m2 site using a modular timber construction method. The compact wooden elements, which are prefabricated in workshops, are assembled on site. This not only reduces construction noise and time, but also waste.

The wooden residential tower, designed by architecture firm Stoermer Murphy and Partners, stands in the center of hip “Harbour City” with a beautiful, unobstructed view of the harbor basin, ships, the Elbe River and the Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall.

Inspired by light, sky, clouds and water, large-format window surfaces stage the view of the surroundings and offer dreamlike views on all sides. An open, as well as generous room layout and high ceilings emphasize the transparent, bright look of the rooms. The building offers 128 individual condominiums as well as 56 publicly subsidized rental apartments.

Germany’s tallest wooden skyscraper
With a height of 65 meters, Roots currently holds the title of Germany’s tallest wooden skyscraper. However, this title will not last forever. Much taller timber construction projects such as the WoHo Berlin are already in the starting blocks.

5,500 cubic meters of softwood
The Roots is also a hybrid building. Apart from three access cores and a base as a reinforced concrete structure, all upper floors will be built with solid wood ceilings and interior walls. A total of 5,500 cubic meters of softwood will be used.

07 | WoHo, Berlin – Germany

In Berlin Kreuzberg, the WoHo (residential high-rise) is planned with a height of 98 meters. It is to be Germany’s tallest wooden building with 29 floors and is to be realized near Potsdamer Platz directly next to the Anhalter Bahnhof S-Bahn station.

On a usable floor space of 18,000 m2, people will not only work but also live in four different cubatures. To this end, 25% will be used for commercial space, 60% for residential space and 15% for social infrastructure such as co-making facilities, kindergartens and community rooms.

High-rise building in wood-hybrid construction

The WoHo in Berlin is also to be built using the wood-hybrid construction method. The stairwells and elevator shafts of the four structures will have a steel-concrete construction, while the rest of the load-bearing structure will be made of wood.

08 | Mjøstårnet, Brumunddal – Norway

Mjøstårnet was built in Brumunddal. This is a small town with 10,000 inhabitants and is located about an hour and a half drive north of Oslo. The wooden high-rise stands alone on the banks of the Brumunda River and has a majestic appearance overlooking Lake Mjøsa, the largest lake in Norway. The name “Mjøstårnet” is Norwegian and means “The Tower of Lake Mjøsa”.

Mjøstårnet is intended to be a symbol of “green change” and to prove that tall buildings can be constructed using local resources, local suppliers and sustainable wood materials.

With its distinctive architectural appearance, Mjøstårnet is a signal building that stands out from the landscape with its 85.4 meters or 18 stories, and also through its revolutionary use of wood in construction and cladding. It is a modern high-rise building with mixed use. Voll Arkitekter was responsible for the regulation of the site, the design of the tower, the design of the floor and the public bath connected to the tower. With a footprint of only 17 m in width and 37.5 m in length, each floor is approximately 640 m2. The total area for the tower is about 10,500 m2 with an additional public bath of 4,900 m2.

The main structure consists of large-scale glulam trusses along the facades and interior columns and beams. The trusses absorb the global forces in the horizontal and vertical directions and provide the building with the necessary stiffness. CLT walls are used for secondary load bearing of three elevators and two staircases. Large prefabricated façade elements are attached to the exterior of the timber structures and form the building envelope. These sandwich elements are equipped with non-combustible insulation and already attached exterior panels.

The building mix
The first floor is public, with lobby, reception and restaurant. There is also an adjacent public pool with two 25-meter pools.

The second floor is reserved for rentable conference rooms and technical facilities.

Mjøstårnet has 72 hotel rooms and 33 apartments, ranging in size from 50 to 180 m2. There is also a public viewing terrace on the top floor.

09 | Ice stadium, Davos – Switzerland

It is the most imposing ice stadium in Europe. Construction of this work of art began on April 9, 1979. Even then, the spectacular roof construction caused an international sensation. According to the Davos Spa Association, it was essential to integrate the four foundation pillars from 1970 into the new building, thus an oblique weight effect of the roof structure was specified. Since wood can absorb moisture better than steel, it was chosen. Also, the entire Swiss wood processing industry had joined forces and advocated for a wooden structure.

This fantastic wooden structure was calculated and finally designed by the young engineer Walter Bieler. Thus, on top of the foundation pillars, refined support structure made of glued laminated wood was placed, forming the dome that gained international fame.

How was the required wood brought to Davos?
At that time, there was not enough dried wood in Switzerland for the huge wooden beams needed for the roof construction. Part of the required quantity was therefore procured from the Black Forest region (DE). The transport to Davos was also extremely costly.

The large, but worthwhile effort, was absolutely worth it for what is probably the most ingenious ice rink roof in Europe.

10 | Stave church, Borgund – Norway

The “Borgund stavkyrkje” was built around 1180, is one of the most outstanding examples of Norwegian stave architecture and thus one of the oldest wooden buildings in Europe. It is dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle. It is not only very well preserved, but also the most distinctive of the Norwegian stave churches and a tourist attraction. Research has shown that the wood used to build the church was felled in the winter of 1180/81.

The best preserved and most authentic of its kind in Norway
This very special church design was the prototype of a whole stave church group. These were built according to the same pattern and were counted among the Borgund type.

The church is a 14-mast stave church. The third mast of each long side is floating and ends on the lowest beam pincer. Thus, the gable roof of the raised nave is supported by twelve masts, which were embedded in a stone foundation.

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