https://archive.md/EPXz6
"In the 1990s, architects and builders in central Europe started experimenting
with a novel material. It was wood, but a far cry from a contractor’s 2-by-4s:
These were panels like thick wooden sandwiches, the layers stacked and glued
with the grains at perpendicular angles, greatly increasing their strength.
Called cross-laminated timber, or CLT, the product began to be used in
buildings from Austria to Scandinavia.
Eventually, CLT and glued laminated beams and columns — a family of materials
known as mass timber — made their way across the Atlantic. Architects were
enthusiastic, but familiarizing themselves and the construction sector with a
new way to build was a learning curve.
US building codes also prohibited wooden structures over a certain height as a
fire risk (remember the Great Chicago Fire from history class?). A 284-foot
apartment tower in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that’s currently the tallest mass
timber building in the world needed a special permit to be built.
The easing of code restrictions a few years ago, after safety testing,
coincided with many companies setting environmental, social and governance
(ESG) goals to touch off a timber boom.
Timber high-rises have now been proposed for cities around the country. Walmart
Inc. is building what it has said will be the world’s largest mass timber
corporate campus on 350 acres in Bentonville, Arkansas. Alphabet Inc.’s Google
has wood buildings under construction in Sunnyvale, California.
Data from the Wood Products Council, an industry group that tracks US timber
building projects, tells the same story. The group counted 69 projects
constructed across the US in 2013. By December 2022, that number had grown to
755. Adding in projects still in the design phase (some of which won’t get
built), the total rises to 1,677."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-rubella-south-east-asia-huma-rights-estonia-animal-canada/>
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
