Wood For Good
Images: (opposite page) Prospect Row, (this page) a new development in Bergen, Norway is challenging preconceptions about timber construction.
costs, this kind of precision engineering can also help to lower material wastage. The solution itself is very light-weight and easily stacked for transportation, often reducing the number of lorries needed to deliver to site. In urban areas, consideration must be given to the effect the build programme has on neighbours. Timber solutions can be assembled with minimal heavy plant and produce negligible unpleasant or potentially harmful by-products, such as dust, waste and noise.
ACHIEVING NEW HEIGHTS
Despite these qualities, the majority of the UK’s building stock continues to be delivered through more traditional carbon-intensive methods. While appetite is certainly growing, one of the reasons timber construction in urban developments is being held back is a belief that it’s not suitable for mid or high-rise developments. Tall buildings come with unique challenges and timber’s light weight has meant that historically it wasn’t suitable for this purpose.
However, innovative products and modern methods of construction are allowing timber to achieve ever taller and more complex structures. Some forms of cross-laminated timber (CLT), which is made from alternating layers of perpendicular wood pieces, have strength rivalling that of steel. A new development in Bergen, Norway is challenging preconceptions about timber construction. The fourteen-storey building, called Treet, or ‘tree’ in Norwegian, will reach heights of 49m once completed in autumn 2015, taking the mantle of the world’s tallest timber structure from the current record holder, the 32m Forte in Melbourne, Australia. The project is being led by sustainable architecture practice, Artec and structural engineer, Sweco AS for Norwegian housing association, Bergen and Omegn Building society (BOB). To minimise movement, prefabricated glulam modules will be created at four storeys high and stacked one on top of the other to provide increased stability. The timber frame itself will be reinforced with metre-thick diagonal glulam
to carry the vertical load and additional weight added through two concrete decks on the fifth and tenth floors to further reduce movement. CLT will be used to carry the staircase, elevator shaft and some inner walls. Although construction is in the very early stages, the finished building will beautifully demonstrate how it is possible to use today’s methods of construction to meet tomorrow’s standards for sustainability, with the project expected to capture and store approximately 1,000 tonnes of CO2 in its construction. Timber high-rise buildings are an excellent answer to sustainable construction in urban areas. On our own shores, we have excellent examples of buildings originally conceived for steel construction and delivered in timber, such as the nine-storey Stadthaus and eight- storey Bridport House, both in Hackney, East London, and it’s likely we’ll see plenty more to come in the years ahead as the advantages of timber become far more widely recognised.
www.woodforgood.com July 2014 Architects Choice 47
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