A skyscraper made of wood is the Michael Green Architects of Vancouver, BC entry into the Réinventer Paris competition. The latter is intended to highlight and promote new architectural ideas for the city’s future. The skyscraper they propose would also be the tallest wooden building in the world.
Michael Green Architects have not released many details on the project, since it’s still at its early stages, but the idea is to build a 35-story mixed-use tower, which would be called Baobab. The building process would employ the special construction methods designed by the firm, which according to them outperform steel in case of a fire.
The Baobab skyscraper would have 35 floors, which would make it the tallest tower made of timber in the world. It would be capable of sequestering 3,700 metric tons of carbon dioxide, while construction would also avoid harmful emissions during the actual construction process due to working with wood and not concrete.
The wooden Baobab skyscraper would be located on a 69,427 square foot (6,450 sq m) plot on Boulevard Pershing, which is in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. The entire project encompasses the main tower of the skyscraper as well as several smaller wooden buildings around it. These would provide social housing, a student hotel, a market, a bus station, as well as electric car charging points.
Michael Green Architects is excited about this project, mainly since it hopes the realization of the project could expand the boundaries of architecture. Wood is abundant, and sustainable if harvested properly, but a skyscraper made of wood sounds a bit dangerous, although Michael Green Architects make a good case for it, assuring everyone that it is as structurally sound and fire resistant as steel.
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