Australia likely to have world’s tallest wooden tower

Canberra [Australia]: Western Australia is set to be home to the world’s largest tallest wooden building, as authorities in Perth green-lit plans for a 191.2 meter tall (627 foot) “hybrid” tower constructed using mass timber, reported CNN.

Perth’s Metro Inner-South Joint Development Assessment Panel (JDAP) on Thursday approved Grange Development’s proposal for the skyscraper which has currently dubbed the C6 building, and would stand nearly twice as high as the current record holder.

According to the developers, 42 per cent of the proposed tower will be constructed from timber, with the columns and core built with reinforced concrete, CNN reported.

Reportedly, if completed, the building will surpass the world’s largest timber concrete hybrid building, the Ascent tower in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the tower stands at 25 stories or 86 meters (284 feet).

The proposed structure, located on Charles Street in South Perth will also be taller than the forthcoming hybrid timer Atlassian Headquarters in Sydney, which has also claimed the record from Ascent but is still under construction, reported CNN.

The proposed C6 tower, like Atlassian, will combine laminated timer beams with a steel exoskeleton to support the the structure.

Moreover, te Grange Decelopment satted that the 50-story tower will house over 200 apartments and will be Western Australia’s first carbon-negative residential building.

Grange Development’s director, James Dibble said, “The intent of C6 has always been, at its core, a straightforward proposition. Our aspiration with C6 is to shift the focus towards a more climate-conscious approach.”

The tower will use 7,400 cubic meters (over 260,000 cubic feet) of timber harvested from 600 trees, according to Grange, according to CNN.

Dibble, in a proposal submitted to Perth authorities said, “We can’t grow concrete” and called the plan “a new open sourced blueprint that utilizes hybrid construction methodology to offset the carbon within our built environment, which is the single biggest contributor to climate change.”

“This is our opportunity to state that we genuinely care about both the housing crisis before us and the climate crisis we are doing very little about as an industry,” he added.

Furthermore, his plan also included green features like a rooftop garden, an urban farm and resident access to 80 new fully-electric Tesla Model 3s, reported CNN.

Philip Oldfield, an associate architecture professor and head of the University of New South Wales’ School of Built Environment, said that, according to him, environmentally, the project has “strong credentials”.

“Typically we build tall buildings out of steel and concrete. Cement is responsible for 8 per cent of all CO2 emissions. So by replacing concrete and steel with a bio material such as timber, it is going to reduce the environmental impact of the building quite significantly,” Oldfield told CNN.