WOODEN ARCHITECTURE IS growing ever taller – at least on the architects’ CAD screens. One of the latest proposals is an 80-storey skyscraper by PLP Architecture in London. The idea is to place the skyscraper in the Barbican area of central London. Researchers at the Cambridge Department of Architecture have also been involved in the process, with structural engineering firm Smith & Wallwork taking responsibility for the structural elements.
Here in Sweden, they are best known for the award-winning Herrestaskolan in Barkarby – there is more about that in Trä #2 2016. Like with the school in Barkarby, it is the combination of glulam and cross-laminated timber (CLT or crosslam) that will make this mammoth 300 metre tower possible. If it is ever built, it will be the second tallest building in London. The material dimensions are impressive: The 2.5 metre square glulam pillars support crosslam panels that are 1.75 metres thick. Despite the huge scale, the designers calculate that the building will weigh only a quarter of an equivalent structure in concrete and steel.«
