Wood is back in fashion: build prefabricated houses, skyscrapers, hotels or biopassive housing

The growing awareness of respect for the environment not only affects the textile industry, the condemnation of diesel and plastic or the search for cleaner energy sources. It has also reached the construction sector, which is looking back to build less polluting buildings than those made of steel and concrete. Here are four examples of what

Mjøstårnet, an 85.4-meter wooden skyscraper

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When it was completed in March 2019, Mjøstårnet became a record building. Not only because of the way it stands out on the shore of Lake Mjøsa, Norway’s largest lake, but also as a symbol of green change. Mjøstårnet demonstrates that tall buildings, up to 85.4 meters, can be built using local resources, local suppliers and sustainable wood materials.

Located just 17 km north of Mjøstårnet, the company Moelven Limtre played a key role in the tower’s construction: they produced and installed columns, beams and diagonals from Glued Laminated Timber – layers of dimensional timber bonded together with durable structural adhesives and moisture resistant – for the main charging system. And the cross-laminated wood was used for the spaces of the elevators and the balconies.

Mjøstårnet has been ratified as the tallest wooden building in the world by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), as well as Guinness World Records. The tower has also received numerous awards and accolades including the New York Design Awards, the Norwegian Technology Awards, and the CTBUH Award of Excellence.

A small prefabricated wooden house

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The truth is, the market offers proposals that serve as a main or second residence. However, wood is also useful for this type of construction beyond camping houses. An example is the proposal by the architects Gnocchi + Danesi, “a project that acts as a contemporary interpretation of the old traditional mountain shelters, providing architectural character and spatial quality”, they explain on their website.

This industrialized wooden mini-house model has 24 square meters, but you have the option of adding another 12 m2 module. In fact, each module has an independent structure, allowing freedom of configuration and expansion. “The different design configurations offer the possibility of managing the space according to the needs”, explains the study.

AKA Patagonia, a wooden boutique hotel in Natales (Chile)

Render: Pablo Larroulet. Photography: Fernanda Del Villar

The Pablo Larroulet architecture studio signs the design of this hotel in Patagonia, one of the most important tourist destinations in Chile and the world that stands out for its incredible natural landscape. Thus, the project was born to respect this environment with an architecture that emerges from the earth and becomes part of nature. “Aka Patagonia is a tribute to the landscape,” says the studio. For the construction of the different villas, lenga wood was used, a typical native species of the area.

The hotel consists of six modules of private rooms and a common module for relaxation, meeting and kitchen. The six prefabricated wooden modules were built in a shipyard and then installed on site, strategically positioned to frame the views of the various natural attractions and obtain the greatest amount of natural light during the day.

A biopassive house in Sant Pere de Vilamajor (Barcelona)

House Habitat has completed the construction of a biopassive house in Sant Pere de Vilamajor (Barcelona) of 140 m2 distributed over two floors with 3 bedrooms, one of them en suite, 2 bathrooms, toilet, double-height living-dining room with integrated kitchen and facility room.

The house, built with natural or sustainable materials, is perfectly integrated into the environment where it is located, at the foot of Montseny. The structure is made of light wood framework prefabricated in the workshop, and its ventilated façade finished with gray autoclaved wood gives it personality and a unique aesthetic, in keeping with the surrounding wooded area.

It is a project by RGA Arquitectes that has opted for the wood construction system, among other reasons, because it causes a lower level of CO2 emissions, a significant decrease in energy demand, and because it allows maximizing thermal and comfort benefits. , reduce construction waste and execution time.