Fifty years ago, Many apartment buildings were built in the International Style, tall flat slabs of buildings with efficient layouts. Now Acton Ostry Architects are using this iconic 20th century style to build the world's tallest timber tower using a truly 21st century material, Cross laminated Timber (CLT). I have described CLT as the dream material: it's made from a renewable resource, it sequesters carbon, it is strong enough to replace wood and concrete in higher buildings, and right now, it helps use up some of the billions of board-feet of mountain pine-beetle infested wood that will rot if we don't cut it and use it fast.

The building is a new student residence for the University of British Columbia that the University president says is "a living laboratory for the UBC community. It will advance the university’s reputation as a hub of sustainable and innovative design, and provide our students with much-needed on-campus housing.” At 53 meters (174 feet) it will just squeak in as the tallest plyscraper.

Acton Ostry Architects are working with Architekten Hermann Kaufmann, who has built tall wood buildings with the CREE system, which is a hybrid of wood and concrete.

More precisely, according to the architects,

No doubt the steel and concrete people will be out in force calling this a firetrap (thats what all the commenters are saying in the Vancouver Sun) However it is not. The architects note that "The conservative approach used for the design of the project is equally as safe as that for high rise buildings using a concrete or steel structure. "

Then there is the basic characteristic of CLT: It doesn't burn very well.

There is a reason for that sixties flat slab look: "To comply with university planning requirements the design reflects the character of International style modernist buildings on the campus."

A real mix of a classic design from the past and the material of the future.

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