Top of the tree
The case for wooden skyscrapers is not barking
THE five-storey pagoda of the Temple of the Flourishing Law in the Nara prefecture of Japan is one of the world’s oldest wooden buildings. It has withstood wind, rain, fire and earthquakes for 1,400 years. Analysis of the rings in the central pillar supporting the 32-metre structure suggests the wood that it is made from was felled in 594, and construction is thought to have taken place soon after.
In an age of steel and concrete, the pagoda is a reminder of wood’s long history as a construction material. New techniques mean that wood can now be used for much taller buildings. A handful are already going up in cities around the world. The 14-storey Treet block of flats in Bergen, Norway, is currently the tallest. But Brock Commons, an 18-storey wooden dormitory at the University of British Columbia in Canada, is due to be completed in 2017. That is when construction is expected to begin on the 21-storey Haut building in Amsterdam. Arup, a firm of engineering consultants working on the project, says it will be built using sustainable European pine. Some architects have even started designing wooden skyscrapers, like the proposed Tratoppen (“the treetop” illustrated above), a 40-floor residential tower on the drawing-board in Stockholm.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline "Top of the tree"
Science & technology September 10th 2016
More from Science & technology
Many mental-health conditions have bodily triggers
Psychiatrists are at long last starting to connect the dots
Climate change is slowing Earth’s rotation
This simplifies things for the world’s timekeepers
Memorable images make time pass more slowly
The effect could give our brains longer to process information