LAGOS'S WOODEN TOWER
(Shortlisted - Plan B: City Above the City)
Lagos is the most populate city in Africa and represents a big deal for architects. City consists of 16 million inhabitants. Situated in the heart of Ikory, the most popular and the richest residential site of Nigeria, Lagos’s tower is the unique wooden structure which is designed to be a smart and sustainable building. 

The old existing building is located on the highbrow Bourdillon Road with picturesque vegetation. It counts 4 blocks housing units. Each consists of 4 bedrooms and 3 bedroom apartments distributed on 4 floors. There are some amenities: Swimming Pools, Gymnasium, Tennis courts, Children’s Playground, Parking lots, Borehole and water treatment, Sewage treatment plants and electricity Generator
Lagos’s tower rises above the town and follow the sky and search to cross the limit of wooden construction. The new landmark is composed of mixed residential type used; it is built on the roof of Abebe Court, a housing estate. 

The whole is oriented to maximize daylight and natural ventilation. The wooden envelope provides shading from the heat of the direct sun around the shape. Plants belt around each floor contribute to creating fresh air flow and keep a constant microclimate into living space while providing a visual comfort and aesthetic. 

The project focuses on the open area. This is an experimental tall wooden structure in Lagos. The apartments are designed around a central core. Building is divided in 4 parts. The existing structure and new are separated by sky gardens and amenities. The top roof consists of 360° restaurants and lush greenery. Sky gardens also contribute in social gathering between users. It gives a new natural footprint face to the historic Centre dominated by massive and heavy building built in ceramic, concrete and asphalt.

The envelope high lights Yoruba culture with their massive presence in the heart of Lagos. Inspiration comes from the history of Edo, Yoruba and Hausa people. Lagos is the oldest site of Benin Empire and it is awesome to see that there is always a traditional hierarchy in this modern city. Obe yet symbolizes the king of the man, the king of Lagos state. This tower is influenced by the contest ‘they don’t fuck it’, but it wants to be integrated into the city life. 

The entire structure is built by using resistance of LVL wood system. It is used as a load-bearing and a non-load bearing structure. Structural feasibility and sustainability are based on wood. LVL products allow crossing very far-reaching. Wood is known as the fingerprint of Nature into artificial buildings. Maybe will it connects us to nature? Its most powerful comes from the unicity of each piece of wood and it’s wonderful.

This experimental smart tall building is developed through natural, recyclable and local material. It can be a beautiful landmark for Ikory and in Nigeria. By consideration of the context and the local history, the design improved lifestyle and reveal all these points: Marketable, serviceable, economical, sustainable, environmental, Ecological and Social.​

Authored by: Hermann Kamte

The project, located in Melbourne, pushes creativity and design with CLT as standard construction system to new frontiers. The unique layout sees a series of apartments that each pass through the building North to South and split on two levels. This format allows for frontage on both sides of the building and a simple system for natural cross building air flow.  The project is designed around community integration in an urban environment while still enabling individual tenancy. 

105 Punt Road is 8 stories tall with two concrete cores. Currently under development we believe this project represents a new dynamic for Cross Laminated Timber, using the Mass Timber system efficiently while adapting to a new refined set of modern design constraints.

It is still unclear who will be supplying the CLT for the project, but we imagine that in the near future as more local producers in NZ and AUS come online there will be a greater push for domestic product from relatively local managed forests.  

More can be found on deciBel Architecture's Website, images from deciBel Architecture. 

White Arkitekter paired with Florian Kosche in Sweden have won a competition to design and build an innovative wood skyscraper in Skellefteå, Sweden. The building will function as a cultural centre mixed with a four star hotel covering 16 stories. Currently the project is designed to reach an astonishing 76 m in height, putting in a strong position to be the world's tallest Mass Timber Skyscraper. 

The project will be a hybrid solution using a mixture of wood, steel and concrete where each material makes the most sense. This allows modern buildings to take on a strong sustainable push, while maintaining practicality and cost effectiveness. Spans inside the cultural centre call for hybrid timbre steel trusses where clear spans extend beyond 21 m. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2019, and more information can be found here from Dezen. 

Team V Architecture has planned to start construction on the 73 m residential tower in 2017 and finish construction in 2019. For a short while the tower will likely be the tallest wood skyscraper in the world. The apartments are planned to be fairly high end on the luxury scale with tenants choosing their exact layouts and even the number of floors in their apartments.  The project is slated to use mostly CLT along with an innovative facade that has the potential to gather wind energy.  The project will be 21 stories tall and seeks to be a modern beacon of sustainable construction techniques. 

More information can be found from Arch Daily.

Photo: Shigeru Ban via Vancity Buzz

Vancouver BC is quickly becoming a hot bed of the Mass Timber world. The city is already sporting the world's tallest hybrid timber skyscraper, UBC Brock Commons , but Shigeru Ban plans to push that even further as his firm takes on the skylines of the Pacific North West. 

The project details have not been fully released yet but briefings entail a hybrid building with the lower portion being conventionally constructed with concrete and steel. The upper 7 (or more) stories are designed in hybrid mass timber solutions. Mass timber was chosen to help reduce the eccentric mass at the top of the building during a seismic event. This allows the building to exhibit superior earthquake performance characteristics. 

In Shigeru Ban's refined style, the project is expected to exemplify elegance of materials and purity of connections. This engineering feat sees a amazing combination of international architects & engineers meeting with local knowledge and abilities to produce a one off masterpiece. The project is expected to host Douglas Fir glulam as a key feature of West Coast style, strength and local sustainability. 

​We look forward to more developed press releases and final project details to form, fit and height. 

Quadrangle Architects has teamed up with Fieldgate Homes to produce Toronto's first Mass Timber six story building. The project will host 37 high end residential suites. Titled, HeartWood The Beach, the development is currently in pre-construction and located at 1884 Queens Street, Toronto, near the waterfront. Mass Timber with use as CLT and Glulam was chosen for the primary structural system being cited as more environmentally friendly than concrete or steel and just as strong. The goal behind the structure is to expose the wood where practical and create a dialogue between modern urban society and the natural world beyond, integrating them as part of a holistic linage. 

You can learn more about the project on the developer's website HERE. 

The World's tallest Mass Timber building is well underway and the Mass Timber portion of the project is moving ahead of schedule. The 18 story student residence has been proceeding with erection at nearly a pace of two floors per week. The final project will top out at 53 m (173 ft) tall and house over 400 student dorms.  The University of British Columbia has been extremely progressive in the pursuit of modern engineered wood products, helping to support the economy of British Columbia, as well as supporting the city of Vancouver for its Greenest city in the world 2020 vision. 

A Mass Timber - concrete hybrid structure was selected to demonstrate the viability of Tall Wood structures while remaining cost comparative and adding life safety factors. The project demonstrates a high level of fire safety with multiple redundant systems in place, including 3 layers of gypsum and high end reserve sprinkler system. In the event of an earthquake the timber structural weighs less than the concrete alternative and provides better energy dissipation, allowing it to exemplify superior seismic performance. 

The project is revolutionary in its use of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) in a true 2-way span, allowing for the removal of all beams in the structural system. The Mass Timber system consists of glulam columns and CrossLam floor plates with specialty steel connection linking the elements. These elements are progressively assembled and stacked together at a record breaking pace.  The Mass Timber portion was prefabricated with CNC machines offsite to tight tolerances. This allows for a quick and easy progression on site with little to no problems and holdups. 

Key Mass Timber Project Members of the team are:

UBC Properties Trust - Client
Acton Ostry - Architect of Record
Fast + Epp Engineering - Engineer of Record
UrbanOne - General Contractor
Seagate Structures-  Mass Timber Installer
Structurlam Products - Mass Timber / CrossLam Fabricator

This live webcam from Seagate Structures, gives a weekly timelapse of the project and daily photos. 

Keep tuned for more updates and in-depth report at the end of the project. 

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Mass Timber projects are popping up around the globe but this one takes on some exceptionally interesting ideas. Anders Berensson Architects have proposed a skyline changing Wood Skyscrapers for downtown Stockholm.  The projects is 113 m tall and built above an existing parking garage. The weight of CLT compared to traditional construction methods was a key determining factor in its choice as the structural system. The positive environmental benefits of the project were also key to the choice of CLT. 

The project is wrapped in an artistically stylized facade which not only works as a sunshade for the interior of the structure but also allows easy counting of the floors as this will be the tallest building in Stockholm.  The project has been named Trätoppen which means the tree top. 

More can be found for the project on Anders Berensson's blog HERE. 

Works Partnership Architecture is excited to complete their elegant portland office space project, FrameWork. The building provides a clean interior for a variety of tenant uses, while being structurally honest to the materials used and their aesthetic properties. 

Framework is a direct adaptation of the historic small plate timber structures that weave through the building fabric of the central eastside of Portland. Structurally little different than neighbouring 100 year old structures, the elimination of the masonry perimeter walls necessitated a shift in identify. Traditional wall and window are able to give way to a simple glass vitrine that allows the warmth of the wood interior to be clearly seen from the street.  The retail frontage in the concrete base is allowed to take on a more sculptural reading, relating by contrast to the taut glass skin above.

The building stands 5 stories tall with mixed concrete and timber on the base floor and a repeated exposed timber structure on levels 2-5. This project only represents the beginning of revitalization a long history of advanced heavy timber construction in the Pacific North West. The natural local materials are not only environmentally friendly, but they also serve to speak to the rebirth of an architectural culture in timber design.  We look forward to many more interesting Mass Timber projects from the Portland area and anticipate Works Partnership Architecture to play a major role in the development of these beautiful, and intrinsically valuable structures. 

Images courtesy Joshua Jay Elliott. 

A true high rise timber building has been given the green light by the UBC board of directors on October 1st 2015.  The project is planned to be an astonishing 53m (174') tall. This will be the tallest wood based building in the world once completed and contains no doubts that this is a true high-rise tall timber building. 

The innovative design was produced by Acton Ostry Architects, of Vancouver BC, Architekten Hermann Kaufmann of Austria, and Vancouver's Fast + Epp Structural Engineers. This unique project team was able to combine the benefits of wood with an new structural design making the timber structure a competitive solution to alternatives on its own.  CLT is used in a true two way span making it one of the most efficient floor systems possible. Quick connect steel systems are used between glulam columns and CLT floors. 

Two concrete elevator cores are combined with glulam columns and Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) flooring panels. This produces a robust structure in a high seismic zone while mitigating carbon impacts and allowing a relatively quick erection time.  The project is set to be home to 404 student residences  while attaining a LEED Gold level accreditation.  Strict fire protection methods have been put in place for this one of a kind timber skyscraper arguably making it safer in terms of life safety in the event of any fire conditions. Vigorous testing and requirements were placed on the structure before it was allowed to move ahead the next levels of projects stages demonstrating world wide leadership in technical engineering with the Earth's most dynamic material, wood. 

The University of British Columbia is a world leader in Forestry Management and Wood Products research. This project is one of many on the UBC campus to demonstrate innovative, sustainable and beautiful uses of value added local resources. The UBC Faculty of Forestry has something to be proud of today helping produce, demonstrate and be home to a clear example of sustainable forestry matched with modern technologies in Architecture and Engineering. 

The project will likely be completed with SPF and Douglas FIr. Some of the tallest Pine trees in the world are reported at 83 m (260') tall, while the tallest Douglas Firs are around 120m (415') tall. Our engineering still has yet to match both the life cycle and structural efficiency of these beautiful organisms, however we are slowly closing the gap with projects like this. 

This project will allow the British Columbia Forestry and Construction industries to leap ahead showcasing global leadership in technology, design and engineering.  

More information is available in a formal press release from the University of British Columbia. 
Images below courtesy Acton Ostry, Images above UBC.