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- More architects are turning to wood to build their structures and make them more sustainable.
- In Sweden, a $110 million center was built as a proof of concept for this.
- Other architects in Sweden are putting together plans to construct whole wooden cities.
The materials may sound like the makings of a shoddy IKEA dresser — but the glued laminate timber that partially makes up Sweden’s latest architectural wonder could offer a glimpse at future skyscrapers.
In Sweden, architects are attempting to journey back to the days before concrete, bricks, and steel, and building impressive towers made with timber, The Washington Post reported.
The shift to timber is meant to bring sustainability back to building practices, the architects told the Post, and builders have already constructed a $110 million proof-of-concept called the Sara Cultural Center in Skelleftea, Sweden, to show that the sky is the limit when it comes to wooden structures.
“The municipality was asking for a ‘brave building,’ and this is what we tried to do,” Robert Schmitz, a lead architect at White Arkitekter, the firm behind the Sara Cultural Center, told the Post.
JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images
Nearly every part of the Sara center is built with prefabricated wood, and features grand halls, ginormous ceiling fixtures and art displays, and expansive views. Per the Post, visitors of the center can peruse the public library, banquet halls, and three theaters. If they prefer a longer stay, the site has a hotel with a restaurant, pool, and spa.
The dream of wood architecture in Sweden doesn’t stop with the architects of the Sara center — in Stockholm, plans are underway to build an entire wooden city center.
The architects told the Post that, at least in the heavily forested areas of Sweden, wood-based architecture is the future of sustainable building for several reasons.
These buildings don’t depend on cement. The building material’s emissions have grown faster than most other single sources of carbon dioxide thanks to their increased demand and production, Inside Climate News reported. Cement manufacturing accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, research from the University of Rochester shows.
They also don’t depend on steel. The material’s manufacturing accounts for 7 to 9% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions, per the World Steel Association.
White Arkitekter also claims that their process will be carbon negative, the Post reported, because the buildings themselves will store nearly 9,100 tons of carbon dioxide — offsetting the carbon used to transport and build the structures themselves.
And while fire is a concern, the Sara center’s architects told the publication that there are processes in place to ensure the safety of these buildings, such as using fire-resistant coatings on buildings.
The trend of timber structures is not limited to Sweden, the Post reported. Across Europe, Asia, and even in the US, wood towers are becoming a more common building material, reinforced by a desire to combat climate change.
The Post reported that this could become more common in the coming years as countries in Europe and the US begin to account for wood structures in their building codes.
According to a Reuters analysis, the use of wood laminate in the US could significantly increase as a result of its inclusion to US building codes, as well as insurance coverage of wood-built structures.
This movement is not limited to wood. In places like West Africa, architects like Diébédo Francis Kéré are turning back to traditional building materials like soil, stone, and vegetation as sustainable building materials.
“The built environment — as it is built now — is not sustainable,” Michael Green, the author of “The Case for Tall Wood Buildings,” told the Post.
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