Timber towers: the rise of the wooden skyscraper

Wood is the oldest of construction materials. It’s elemental, and humankind’s relationship with it runs deep, but in a very literal sense, we’ve been burnt by it one too many times. After the Great Fire of London wiped out 80 per cent of the city, the London Building Act of 1667 asserted all houses were to be built in brick or stone. Since then, steel, concrete and glass have all come to dominate our city skylines, but timber is set to make an unlikely return.

Something old, something new

A number of high profile architects and engineers are trying to recast wood as a material fit for the 21^st Century. In large part, that’s down to the emergence of cross-laminated timber (CLT), a type of wood panel made from multiple layers of solid-sawn lumber. “The wood products architects are using today are very different from the material we’ve used throughout the rest of history,” explained Richard Harris, an Honorary Professor of Timber Engineering at the University of Bath with 25 years’ experience as a structural engineer to his name.