14


INSIGHTS


become the Timber Innovation Act of 2016. Elsewhere, architect SOM has redesigned a 42-storey reinforced concrete and glass tower it built in Chicago in 1964 using today’s engineered timber technologies. The company’s comprehensive research study shows it can be done using a hybrid of solid timber and concrete connections, the latter for stiffness but also to provide the weight necessary to maintain the building’s stability in the Windy City. In Europe, designs for a plethora of tall, engineered timber buildings are in process: four 20 storey apartment blocks for Stockholm’s waterfront proposed by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter, the 24-storey Ho-Ho tower in Vienna designed by RLP Rüdiger Lainer + Partner, and the 34 storey Västerbroplan residential tower in Stockholm by C.F. Møller Architects (illustrated on page 13). In each, the boundaries of timber engineering are being pushed ever further, but the example that takes this endeavour to a completely new level is the Barbican Oak tower in the City of London. This research project exploring the possibility of building up to 80 storeys in timber was initiated by PLP Architects in London, Smith and Wallwork Engineers in Cambridge and Cambridge University’s Architecture Department. Speculative and provocative, the project raises many technical and wood science questions, the responses to which will undoubtedly expand the boundaries of engineered timber technology and manufacture far beyond current understanding and industry capacity. Time will tell just how far these technologies can advance, but the speed of transformation to date suggests Professor Alex de Rijke’s prediction that ‘timber is the new concrete of the 21st century’ is closer than ever before to being fulfilled.


Tham & Videga? Peter Wilson is managing director of Timber Design Initiatives


Your partner in Good Wood Business


rd wooden high-rise apartments, Stockholm


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