Why wooden skyscrapers are popular

Friday 11 Oct 2024

 
At the University of Toronto, workers are building a 14-story structure near the football stadium that will house classrooms and faculty offices. What makes this project unique is its construction method: they are using large timber beams, columns, and panels that are bolted together.

As each piece arrives on a flatbed truck, a crane lifts it into place, and workers attach it using metal connectors. The half-finished building looks like flat-pack furniture being assembled.

This tower utilises mass timber, which replaces traditional steel beams and concrete with large wooden components that can be over half the length of a football field. Although it's still not very common, mass timber construction is becoming more popular and is starting to appear in cities around the world.

The tallest mass timber building to date is the 25-story Ascent skyscraper in Milwaukee, completed in 2022. As of that year, there were 84 mass timber buildings of eight stories or more either completed or under construction worldwide, with another 55 proposed. Most of these buildings are in Europe (70%), followed by North America (20%), and a smaller percentage in Australia and Asia. By 2023, at least 1,700 mass timber buildings had been built in the United States alone.

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Source: ZME Science
Image credit: University of Toronto


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