Wooden Skyscrapers

[PaulChinetti]

Thought this was pretty interesting. 

[Neigeville2]

interesting, but I'm not convinced.  Partly because concrete is my favorite building material, after dirt, but also because of the noise factor.  Concrete insulates you from your neighbor's noise.  Wood rots, insects eat it, it burns, and it's not malleable, it lends itself to boxiness.  Dirt is the best building material IMO although I doubt it will ever go tall.

 

[smeagolsfree]

I saw an exhibit at the National Building Museum in DC and the new technology for wood construction is amazing. Some of the new composite wood material has a tensile strength greater than steel and will not burn or melt as fast as steel does. Pretty amazing stuff.

[MetroTN]

Noise is awful in wood built buildings.

[Guest]

I do think the mid rise builds shown add some good alternatives. However it seems a Huge gamble on the larger builds. Not only on the durability and ruggedness if the structure, but the money outlay vs. questionable demand from commercial and/or residential prospects.

[Bos2Nash]

Sorry to bump this thread, but this is a topic that I very much enjoy. Wooden skyscrapers - I believe - is something we can actually see becoming very common over the next decade or so. The Pacific Northwest has begun to use Mass Timber (different from the mid-rise stick builds) to really show off the impressive capabilities of wooden structures. The introduction of Cross-Laminated Timber, Nail-Laminated Timber and GluLam are all making it incredibly attractive.  Some people may say it puts design in a box, but when you look at what we are getting in terms of large building design (505, just about any Millennium Partner Developments), its basically the same thing, with warmer, softer materials that take much much less energy to produce and harvest responsibly. 

The building, Brock Commons, was completed a number of years ago, but really is a testament to where wood is coming from and is going. The structure took only 9-1/2 weeks to assemble (18 floor structure)! Pretty incredible since this is probably at a minimum half the time of a concrete or steel structure.

https://www.thinkwood.com/our-projects/brock-commons-tallwood-house

 

[dragonfly]

OK question: what kind of glue is used for the CLT material?  when I think of glue, I think of nice pieces of furniture I've had where the glue fails, e.g. a butcher block table that lasted 25 years, and a really nice secretary that came apart after 50 years, plus or minus. Would they be using some kind of cross-linked polymer instead of "glue"?

[Armacing]

I, for one, would like to welcome our new termite overlords!

Just kidding... I would like to go inside one of these buildings to see what it's like.  It would be cool if there were all kinds of exposed beams high quality woods.

[Hey_Hey]

This is an intriguing discussion/topic.  I know wood is a cheaper material to use which raises the possibility for more affordable urban housing.  Right now, the economics and cost of construction of high rise buildings mandate a sales price of somewhere in the $500/sq foot price. Could wooden structures get that number down by 10-20%? The material is less expensive but it seems it would also save time on the construction side so there are fewer holding costs and a shorter time to occupy capital. 

Edited January 31, 2019 by Hey_Hey

[Bos2Nash]

Article from 2019 that interviews a couple folks talking about how Mass Timber is actually not contributing to deforestation.

This map is from the Sustainable Forestry Initiative in which shows the amount of forests that are certified to be sustainably harvested and replanted. it shows that 362,866,861 acres are certified to perform these practices

Sustainability within construction is all about the chain of custody in proving where product came from and where it should go at the end of its life cycle. FSC and SFI provide this chain of custody for wood as a sustainable material. This is part of why certifications such as Living Building and Well Building is so difficult because to be actually certified you have to physically prove it. Passive house is a bit different because it is more related to air tightness rather than materials and LEED is honestly a joke.

[Bos2Nash]

Worth posting this here as it shows the six projects in and around Nashville that has made use of Mass Timber. This map as a whole shows the success of the technology in all kinds of construction. If you zoom in on Milwaukee for instance, you will find the tallest multi-family timber skyscraper in the world (may already be getting passed, not sure). With the recent code change here in Nashville, I do wonder if we will see more and more Timber buildings coming here.

https://www.woodworksinnovationnetwork.org/projects/?boundingBox[northEast][lat]=38.026829328065446&boundingBox[northEast][lng]=-83.49740533202728&boundingBox[southWest][lat]=34.16220746979178&boundingBox[southWest][lng]=-90.67147759765228&page=1

[smeagolsfree]

The new code change Craig mentioned will allow for wooded skyscrapers in Nashville to rise to 18 stories FYI. 

I think we will be seeing a lot more of these proposals in Nashville. 

As a note Craig, so this does not die a nasty death, the main thread will probably be the best place for this!

[Bos2Nash]

On 8/11/2023 at 7:25 AM, smeagolsfree said:

As a note Craig, so this does not die a nasty death, the main thread will probably be the best place for this!

I figured the code change was a good spot in the Bits and Pieces thread,. With this post just being a map of the Mass Timber projects around the country (can zoom in on Nashville) I figured this would be the better spot and actually may be easier to come back to as it won't get buried in another thread.

[Nathan_in_DC]

Back a few years ago there was an exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London about the history of plywood. My wife insisted on going to see it. I was very confused about the concept of a museum exhibit on plywood. But in reality it was one of the most interesting exhibits I've seen, and spent a lot of time talking about future use of plywood and other laminated wood materials as a sustainable, durable construction medium. Fascinated to see where this technology develops and what it leads to.

[Bos2Nash]

I'm really hopeful that we see more of the Mass Timber projects. It has the opportunity to be very sustainable, very durable and quite beautiful. It is also very safe in fire and seismic conditions. Plywood unfortunately doesn't really fall into the Mass Timber conversations, but the use of wood in anything over 5 stories tall is very intriguing.