Tall Wood Building, eh?

When project is completely finished with construction in 2017, it will be the world’s tallest wood building.

tall wood building UBC

At 18-stories high, Brock Commons residence hall at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada will eventually house more than 400 students. The building’s flooring structures are made from cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels supported on glulam columns. The exterior cladding for the facade of the building is also mostly made of wood.

Cue the Cool Construction Video

Behold this mesmerizing time lapse video:

Construction for the structure of this tall wood building came in four months ahead of schedule, completed a mere 70 days after the prefab components were delivered to the site.

Tall Wood Buildings and the Environment

In addition to being built ahead of schedule, it’s also important to note the environmental impacts of building tall with wood. From UBC’s site: “Wood is a sustainable and versatile building material that stores, rather than emits, carbon dioxide. By using wood, the impact is a reduction of 2,432 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide compared to other construction materials, the equivalent of taking around 500 cars off the road for a year.”

“Taller wood buildings offer tremendous economic and environmental benefits. The lessons learned at Brock Commons will help transform the built environment in Canada and around the world. In fact, we are already seeing interest in the systems used here for projects in the U.S., Japan and China,” said Cees de Jager, general manager of the Binational Softwood Lumber Council.

To learn more about this project, check out UBC’s site. Tons of info here. 

(Images and video via University of British Columbia)