Why It's Time for Wooden Skyscrapers

Michael Green's big idea is that if a Douglas Fir or Coast Redwood can grow higher than thirty stories, then wooden structures can be built higher still.

Michael’s TED Talk is heavy on statistics, and one of the most striking is that three billion people will need a new home constructed in the next twenty years. This means that the time for a wooden skyscraper is already here.

The engineering breakthrough might come from mass timber panels, using small growth tree pieces laminated together to make huge 8ft x 64ft panels.

Green discusses the beauty of a wooden building and how, like snowflakes, no two pieces of wood are exactly the same. This gives a visual and tactile benefit to wooden structures that people can connect with more than concrete and steel.

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Wood is grown by the power of the sun, stores carbon dioxide and will reduce carbon emissions through its use. Steel and concrete production account for three and five percent of greenhouse gas emissions respectively.

The modular building concept is called FFTT - a nontechnical term for Finding the Forest Through the Trees. Through this flexible process, six stories can be tilted up at once to help optimize timing, strength and safety.

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Michael convincingly addresses the most prominent public concerns: fire danger, deforestation, and seismic resistance. Since publishing his Tall Wood initiative paper in February 2012 Green has been working to change perceptions of wooden buildings from 2x4 structures to a much, much larger scale.