Carbon 12 is an 8 story Mass Timber building planned for Portland, USA. The building is designed for primary residential use with a small commercial space below, housing two commercial spaces. Glulam vertical supports tie into concrete cores which are all fitted together with Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) floor panels. The project has been developed by the Kaiser Group and PATH architecture. As the name hints at, the carbon foot print of this project has been one of the primary motivators to choose timber as the main building system. The building is set to be 25.9m (85') tall, putting it in the upper realms of existing projects around the world.
Portland appears to be undergoing its own tall timber race. The question will be weather they take hints from beyond the Cascades on construction tactics for these projects or if the will they jump into them with American style gusto and learn the lessons as they go...
The 2015 International Building Code (IBC) has made provisions for CLT, so it is likely that many of the regional hold-ups will be removed and a slew of these Cascadian tall wood buildings will become reality.
Portland appears to be undergoing its own tall timber race. The question will be weather they take hints from beyond the Cascades on construction tactics for these projects or if the will they jump into them with American style gusto and learn the lessons as they go...
The 2015 International Building Code (IBC) has made provisions for CLT, so it is likely that many of the regional hold-ups will be removed and a slew of these Cascadian tall wood buildings will become reality.
Images courtesy of: The Kaiser Group.