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China alone pours more concrete every two years than the United States used in the entire 20th century.īut buildings like Brock Commons point to nascent change in course.
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It is the substrate upon which the world’s urbanization boom is being built. Reducing reliance on concrete would represent a major climate action victory, but the challenges are formidable: Over the last 30 years, global production of concrete has quadrupled. A rendering of Brock Commons’s skeletal structure. It also consumes a lot of sand - a disappearing resource - gobbling up 40 to 50 billion tons of it each year.
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Concrete’s production causes up to eight percent of global emissions. And the industry’s favorite material, concrete, is perhaps its least sustainable. New technologies, evolving codesĬonstruction is one of the world’s most environmentally destructive forces, accounting for nearly 40 percent of global emissions. Only in the last few years has it begun to come into its own, shepherded by a wave of government incentives, pent-up demand and technological advancements. But wood construction has its challenges. Proponents of wood construction argue that it is carbon negative, in that it effectively takes CO2 captured by trees and locks it into the buildings it supports. Brock Commons Tallwood House was built of prefabricated wood components in just 70 days. But the environmental consequences of these materials has led some in the construction industry back to wood, a material that’s more sustainable and, with each technological leap, an increasingly viable option for large-scale projects. Since the dawn of the skyscraper age, cement, concrete and steel have molded our vertical urban realms. What’s more, its material saved over 2,400 metric tons of carbon emissions.īrock Commons defies a century of high-rise construction norms. Erected from prefabricated components in just 70 days, it was faster and cheaper to build than a conventional building. When it opened in 2017, the 18-story residence hall was the tallest building constructed of timber in the world. This striking facade isn’t just an aesthetic choice. Even the sprinkler system, which in most buildings is usually powered by diesel, is powered by renewable energy.Įxcess energy from the building is passed on to other parts of the city or stored in the cultural center’s on-site batteries.At Vancouver’s University of British Columbia, the Brock Commons Tallwood House, sheathed in sleek blond wood, stands out among the neighboring gray concrete towers. The building is equipped with solar panels, batteries and a heat pump that works with electrical, water and district heating. The building houses six theater stages, the city library, two art galleries, a conference centre, restaurants, and a hotel with 205 rooms that offers views of the surrounding city.Īpart from being one of the world’s tallest wooden buildings and a meeting place for the city’s residents, the building’s energy system tries to be as carbon neutral as possible. The cement industry currently accounts for about 7 percent of global CO2 emissions, per the International Energy Agency. The cultural center, which takes up the lower four levels of the building, is built with columns and beams made of glued laminated timber and without the use of concrete. Kreisel said the building was constructed from 12,200 cubic meters of wood from trees harvested from within a 60-kilometer radius of the city. Skelleftea, which is around 800 kilometers north of the capital Stockholm, and 200 kilometers south of the Arctic Circle, has a population of around 33,000 people and forestry is one of the biggest local industries.
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“It didn’t start as a 20-story house in Skelleftea, it started with a strategy which basically means that Skelleftea didn’t just want to survive but develop,” said Skelleftea head of urban planning Therese Kreisel, seated on the wooden staircase which is at the center of the building and functions as a meeting place for its visitors. Sustainability, innovation and creating something for the community were in focus when planning the Sara House of Culture in Skelleftea - Sara Kulturhus in Swedish - which is almost 80 meters high. A new 20-story wooden building in northern Sweden housing a library, six theater stages and a hotel is set to put art, concerts and meetings at the heart of one of the world’s tallest timber constructions.