The sky is the limit for wood

Sweco has performed an engineering feasibility study for what will be the world’s tallest wooden building in Kirkenes, Norway. With its 20 stories the building will feature a load-bearing structure of glue laminated timber beams and floors and ceilings of solid wood. The spectacular wooden building has aroused considerable interest around the world.

Photo: Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter

The background is the Norwegian Barents Secretariat’s desire to build a unique landmark in Kirkenes that will exemplify the Norwegian investments in the northern areas. The building, to be called Barents House, will serve as a centre for the development of knowledge about the Norwegian-Russian relations in the north.

Architect Reiulf Ramstad is the man behind the idea and design for the building.

“My thought was that a building like this should reflect values, and the obvious choices in this case are sustainability, the environment and the use of wood. It’s exciting, since wood is a timeless and traditional material that is now being used in a new way,” he says.

The plan is to create a building that is CO2-neutral and applies closed-cycle thinking in every detail. And the fact that it will be made of wood is a symbol of the building’s distinctly green profile.

Revolutionary building

“It will certainly be a revolutionary building,” says Rune Abrahamsen at Sweco Norway, who has previously designed the world’s strongest wooden bridge in Rena and is now in the process of making calculations for Barents House.
He confirms that this is indeed possible and not necessarily much more expensive than a traditional structure of steel and concrete.

“Wood is strong, and from a purely structural standpoint there is no question about its ability to handle the stresses involved. The real challenge is the weight. Wood weighs about one fifth as much as concrete. As a result, our main focus is on studying how a building of this type is affected by wind.”

Rune explains that Sweco has created a model of the entire building and that the results are acceptable. 

 “We have tested wind speeds of up to 29 m/s, and at that speed the upper floors of the building move 97 mm.”

Before starting construction, more thorough tests will be carried out in a wind tunnel.