The SiOO X Story – Protecting the Planet - Book - Page 37
Chapter 6
The Future Timber City
Demographic forecasts anticipate the world’s population to
reach and possibly exceed eight billion people by 2023, expanding to nine billion by 2037 and hitting 10 billion by 2056, a milestone figure considered by many scientists to be the maximum
number the Earth has capacity to feed and water.
stries, especially those that maximise the use of indigenous natural
materials. In the case of wood, this means joining the dots between regional forest and timber processing resources, the wood
manufacturing sector and the design and construction industries. It
also requires reappraisal and upgrading of many long-established
building codes and local by-laws that, until recently, actively discouraged the inclusion of timber in new buildings.
At present, 55% of the planet’s inhabitants live in cities, a figure that is expected to grow to 70% by 2050. The gravitation
of rural populations to cities has been evident for many years
but, coupled with the global rate for births continuing to be
generally higher than that for deaths, has meant ever-increasing
densification of existing towns and cities. This can be seen in
locations where scarcity of available land compels rapid construction of taller and taller buildings whilst elsewhere seemingly limitless suburbanisation exacerbates pressure to extend
existing city limits. Taken to the next extreme, megacities such
as Shanghai with its 28 million inhabitants, are spawning satellite conurbations, each planned to accommodate around one
million people but where blind adherence to ‘traditional’ steel
and concrete construction methods’ has already created new
urban areas suffering from diminished air quality and other
forms of pollution. In combination, these factors lend credence
to forecasts that the global building stock will double by 2060
(the equivalent of a new New York City every month for the
next forty years), with, seemingly inevitably, a commensurate
increase in the consumption of vast quantities of non-renew
able materials. This continuing depletion of the planet’s natural
resources is unsustainable.
The City of Vancouver, for example, has now adopted amendments to its Building and Fire By-Laws to permit mass timber
residential and commercial projects up to twelve storeys high.
It is not alone: Copenhagen has plans for a complete district
built from wood, whilst Bergen – home to the 14-storey Treet
Tower – is also considering the construction of a new timber
district situated within a lake. In Helsinki, Stora Enso has created an entire city area formed from its own engineered timber
products. Each of these initiatives has the aim of achieving a 40%
reduction by 2030 in the embodied emissions from the design
and construction of new buildings.
At a national level, Japan is the undisputed pioneer: since 2010
the use of wood has been compulsory in all public buildings of
more than three storeys. The French Government too, in its push
for more sustainable urban development, has made a quantum
leap in its ambitions for the country to be a world leader in timber construction, requiring all new public buildings from 2022 to
be made from at least 50% wood or other bio-sourced materials.
At a city level, the local government in Paris has committed to
this for the Olympic Games that will take place in the city in
2024, requiring that any buildings higher than eight-storeys be
constructed entirely from timber.
Combining demand for housing with the identification of new
employment opportunities is paramount and, in a world where
sustainability has become the vehicle with which cities might
establish an ‘edge’, the emphasis on business and job creation
is moving inexorably towards the nurture and support of local indu-
In this urgent quest for greater sustainability, innovation in timber design, engineering, manufacturing, construction and fire
Passive House, Blackrock, Dublin (2017). Tierney Haines Architects.
Photo: Stephen Tierny.
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