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The disruptive power of tall timber COMMENT
Kevin Flanagan of PLP Architecture explains how the firm’s pioneering research projects to build unprecedented tall engineered timber structures is driven by a wider agenda of increasing quality of life in ‘smart cities’ of the future
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he essence of our firm’s design is innovation, be it the world's smartest and most sustainable building yet, The Edge in Amsterdam, research proposals to improve urban movement
(SkyPod and CarTube), or to build taller than ever before in timber – the Oakwood Timber Tower series. All have at their core the aim of making our quality of urban living and wellbeing better. By 2050 the residential population of 150 of the world’s great cities are projected to double. The existing challenges of insufficient housing in London will become more acute. With population increases, cities will naturally densify, high-rise solutions will
predominate, and the CO2 footprint will increase massively without mitigation and active intervention. Can we meet the challenge? Our goal should be to improve the quality of life and freedom of
choice, allowing cities to thrive. The provision of housing seems an intractable urban challenge however. Cost seems to be driving away the best and most innovative idea makers – the millennials – as the city gentrifies. The younger innovators on which the city ultimately depends are dispersed and forced away. Can we advance a new paradigm, reducing the seeming disruption and extortionate costs of residential housing development through the harnessing of innovations such as robotics, Big Data, crowdsourcing, and the latest materials?
In support of smart cities
Smart cities of the future will be incubators that hatch innovative ideas, such as the new logistics apps, like Blockchain, that are creating a more direct and responsive global marketplace. London needs to rethink and realign its urban economic imperatives, to include greater influence of millennials in transforming the design of our cities to meet their needs, incorporating 5G networks. As The Edge illustrates, ‘smart’ buildings flourish within smart
cities, and 5G will drive technology, from AI to health benefits in offices from WELL Standard-like research and city design initiatives. Can we make daily life in our future cities a healthy experience, reducing stress while increasing stimulation? Can design, architecture and materials be used to promote this healthfulness and de-stressing? Based on science and anecdotal evidence, the answer seems to be that engineered mass timber looks to have terrific potential to improve urban dwellers’ quality of life.
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK
Provocative proposals PLP Architecture, with University of Cambridge Centre for Natural Material Innovation, and structural engineers Smith and Wallwork, are collaborating on provocative feasibility research into mixed-use engineered mass timber/CLT high-rise towers for 21st century cities. The Oakwood Timber Tower proposals – one in London, and two in the Netherlands – have been designed to improve our sense of urban wellbeing, while being a response to anticipated future needs. Oakwood Timber Tower 1, a feasibility study for an 80-storey, 315 metre engineered mass timber and CLT tower at London’s Barbican, was hugely provocative for the construction industry. It contains a total of 1,000 ‘micro-housing’ units, in a 1 million ft2 mixed use tower, with new low-rise terraced accommodation above existing structures.
For the second iteration, Oakwood Timber Tower 2, ‘The Lodge’ was put forward with innovative Netherlands-based developer Provast NL. This project extended our knowledge of the potential of engineered timber technology with a 130 metre centralised oval design, as a more ‘real-world’ initiative. A series of ‘straight’
Courtesy of PLP Architecture for developer Provast NL
ADF AUGUST 2018
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