From Guest Blogger Grace Wood: France Set to Build its First Eco-Friendly Wooden Tower
French architect Jean-Paul Viguier has been chosen to design the country’s first timber-framed tower, right in the heart of the French city of Bordeaux. To be started in 2017 and completed in 2020, the structure will count among some of the world’s tallest buildings made of wood.
An innovative building material
Baptized Hyperion, after the world’s tallest known living tree, the building will reach a height of 57 meters and cover a surface of 17 000 m². The 82 apartments and offices will be spread out over the tower’s 18 floors. The first three levels will be built in concrete, along with the stairs and the lifts, while the partitions and flooring will be made from cross-laminated timber (CLT).
Cross-laminated timber technology is currently revolutionizing the use of wood in the construction industry. Buildings designed with traditional timber are usually limited to two or three stories, but with a load-bearing capacity that is identical to that of concrete, CLT panels are making the construction of taller timber structures possible.
A low carbon footprint
While the lightness and rigidity of the material has resolved the technical challenge of height, it also inaugurates a new generation of buildings with a low carbon footprint. Biosourced and recyclable, CLT is a construction material that does not produce any CO2. This advantage will allow the Hyperion tower to actively participate in the fight against global warming.
The structure aims at dividing by two its carbon footprint. With its 1400 m3 of CLT, the tower will store the equivalent of 1000 tons of CO2. This represents the equivalent of the average carbon emissions generated by the energy consumption of a similar building over 9 years.
A comfortable living environment
The Hyperion tower will offer large volumes and magnificent views. Apartments will extend outwards onto private balconies and hanging gardens. Residents will enjoy the thermal insulation properties of wood and the comfort of living in a natural environment. The timber panels will be left visible, particularly on the underside of balconies.
The light partitions used as walls in the apartments can easily be moved or removed in order to allow families to adapt their living space according to their personal needs. The project will reconcile ecology, population density and quality of life.
Time saving construction methods
The innovative CLT technology allows for the implementation of significant time saving construction methods. The huge wooden panels will be prefabricated in a workshop to enable quick and easy assembly on site. This will also generate less truck rotations and waste, while limiting the emission of pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Cheaper, easier to assemble and sustainable, CLT is set to become a popular building material. The construction of a 34-story wood tower has already been approved in Sweden, while a 30-story tower should rise in Vancouver. As the competition is growing stronger to see who can build the tallest high-rise tower predominantly made of CLT, Skidmore, a Chicago architecture firm, has already published a feasibility study for a 42-story timber-framed tower.
Article contribution by http://www.machineryzone.com/
This may be a good way to construct buildings. However, from reading the description of CLT on several websites, it seems to me that CLT is actually plywood with a different name. My house has “engineered” hardwood floors but looking carefully at a piece it seems to be nothing more than plywood with a different name.
Changing names is nothing new. Computer programmer / analysts are now called software engineers or computer scientists. Janitors are now called custodians. Graveyards are now called memorial parks. This does seem pointless.
There are several articles that explain the difference between plywood and CLT. One of these articles explains that “Unlike plywood, CLT uses full-size, dimensional lumber which is oriented and glued at right angles. The process and product are essentially scaled-up plywood sheets capable of handling much more load.” CLT is often referred to as “supersize plywood” or “plywood on steroids” and it definitely deserves a new name.
http://www.woodsolutions.com.au/Wood-Product-Categories/Cross-Laminated-Timber-CLT
Grace,
After reading the article, it still seems to me that CLT is nothing more than scaled up plywood. It’s like the difference between 4 wheel drive and all wheel drive. Similarly there were different names for limited slip differentials, including twin grip, equa lock, sure grip, posi traction, etc., and if one used the wrong name one was corrected. When on cars alternators replaced DC generators, one was corrected if one said “generator” instead of “alternator”. Interestingly, we do not refer to the power company’s alternating plants. Perhaps I should try that and see what happens.
Perhaps we should call CLT super plywood.
In any case, using wood instead of concrete may well be a good idea under certain circumstances. Perhaps the inflammable nature of it won’t be a problem. And while I’m at it, something that is inflammable can be inflamed but the word “inflammable” had to be scrapped because it was sometimes misunderstood. But instead of using “flammable” instead, perhaps we should simply have used “combustable”.