For Greener Skyscrapers, Basic Building Materials Are Being Reinvented

The world's tallest timber residential tower, 10 stories, in currently in Melbourne, Australia, though a 14-story Norwegian project may top it in 2015. Courtesy of Lend Lease hide caption

The world's tallest timber residential tower, 10 stories, in currently in Melbourne, Australia, though a 14-story Norwegian project may top it in 2015.

In a head-spinning step, a handful of researchers from Cambridge, England, are experimenting with one of man's oldest building materials the kind from trees instead of steel as the primary structure for big buildings. And they're aiming really, really high.

Already, there is one timber apartment building with nine stories in London, a 10-story structure in Melbourne and a 14-story building in Norway. But all that is dwarfed by talk of a wooden building that someday could reach 70 stories into the sky. That's just seven fewer floors than the Chrysler Building in New York City.

Architectural engineers behind the idea, which has recently been gaining momentum, say they are looking for cheaper and more environmentally friendly materials to use than steel and concrete, the materials that have dominated tall buildings since the early part of the 20th century. But relying on timber takes some doing; for it to succeed, it will require not just great architectural skills but the expertise of biochemists.

It doesn't take a degree in architecture, of course, to know that wood has long been considered too weak for high rises not to mention a towering inferno just waiting to ignite. Indeed, builders have been far more likely to opt for steel for both medium- and large-scale structures.

Yet environmentalists long have argued that the construction world urgently needs to become greener. For years, the creation of homes, offices and skyscrapers has been one of the biggest contributors to climate change. All told, these activities lead to nearly half of the U.S. global CO2 emissions. By 2050, the U.N. estimates that nearly 80 percent of the world will live in urban areas, adding up to a lot of planet-damning construction unless something changes and soon.

Scientists are making inroads by studying certain building materials, including wood and concrete, at the molecular level.

To Go Big, Starting Small

Cambridge University has set its sights set on creating that 70-story skyscraper made out of timber. For now, it's in the design stage, but by better understanding the molecular and cellular structure of wood, professor Michael Ramage and his team from the university's department of architecture say they are certain they can strengthen the materials of a wooden building at the weakest points where the giant timber slabs connect at walls and floors.

Go here to read the rest:
For Greener Skyscrapers, Basic Building Materials Are Being Reinvented