Sweco is co-creating solutions for transforming society together with our clients. Recent innovative timber projects in Norway and the Netherlands demonstrate how sustainable construction is rising to new heights, by pushing the boundaries for modular design with new manufacturing and construction processes. Timber is taking off.

The construction industry is responsible for a higher level of carbon emissions than both international air and sea transport combined, at approximately 9 per cent globally through material production.

Finding new ways to develop sustainable urban construction and reduce the carbon footprint typically found in the construction industry is a trending topic.

Wood is increasingly being used as a material for urban construction. Naturally occurring and sustainable, it stores CO2 instead of releasing it during production.

 In Norway in 2019, a team of Sweco consultants applied their expertise to the realisation of Mjøstårnet, the world’s tallest wooden building in Brumunddal, Norway- a small city of 10,000 residents, 140 kilometres north of the capital Oslo, overlooking the eastern shore of Norway’s largest lake.

The mixed-use 18-story landmark tower stands at 85.4 metres tall, and 15,000 square metres in size. The timber tower uses glue- and cross-laminated wood sourced from sustainable, and mostly local, forests.

Sweco provided structural design, fire, acoustic and concrete services for the ground-breaking project, and worked closely with project partners AB Invest A/S, Voll Arkitekter, Moelven Limtre and HENT, to successfully navigate the unique project and challenges posed by using timber in tall tower buildings.

Innovative measures to protect the building in the event of fire were developed including each of the building’s floors and rooms being designed as standalone units, and its structures co-ordinated to mitigate against fire spread. The facade incorporates a firestop material, and fire strips protect the steel components connecting the building’s timber from high temperatures.

Sweco’s engineers also helped introduce the innovation of rounded edges to the building’s pergola. This enabled it to meet its height ambitions and deliver a design that mirrored the building’s internal structures, while also mitigating against the effects of wind.

In the Netherlands, Sweco structural consultant Ibrahim Selek has worked on numerous concrete and steel high-rise projects. A recent team project to build an eight-story hotel in wood for IKEA stores developer Vastint, provided him with new insights into the sustainable advantages of working with timber for urban construction.

“Timber has many structural benefits: it’s high strength, lightweight, dismountable, reusable and it’s a perfect circular material. I don`t see any reasons why one shouldn’t use timber as a construction material,” Ibrahim Selek says.

Sweco structural consultant Ibrahim Selek

Despite its many benefits, and some notable projects aside, timber has not yet reached its potential in the Netherlands.

“Using timber as a construction material on a large scale isn’t conventional in the Netherlands. Only around 2 per cent of the buildings here are currently built using timber. So, we must start building more in timber, to help clients get familiar with building in timber. Wood provides many advantages, which are very relevant in the current market,” he adds. “We have a lot of expertise across Sweco from innovative and best practice timber construction projects. To be completely energy neutral by 2050, we will have to take steps. Timber construction is a necessary response to this,” Ibrahim Selek explains.