The new tallest wooden building in the world is in the US, it reaches 86.6 meters and offers all these comforts

Wood as an alternative construction material to concrete is gaining more and more followers. And as this happens, larger projects appear. We went from using it in small buildings, such as blocks of flats with few floors, to buildings with more than 18 floors, such as the Mjøstårnet, opened in 2019 and located on the shores of Lake Mjøsa, in the town of Brumunddal, in Norway.

The Mjøstårnet was the tallest wooden building in the world for almost three years, until at the end of July this year a tower located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, snatched the title. We are talking about ascenta construction of 25 floors and 86.6 meters high designed by the Korb + Associates Architects studio that houses apartments, a swimming pool, shops and other amenities.

The rise of a new style of construction

For Ascent Construction cross-laminated timber (CTL) has been used. It is a material that little by little is positioning itself as an alternative to concrete, points out the page specialized in construction Arch2o. This is made primarily from spruce, but may include a percentage of pine or larch. One of its main characteristics is the great resistance it offers.

The structure is also made up of glulam beams. These are manufactured in different ways from solid wood, rectified, finished and glued on their faces, with their grains parallel to the upper and lower layers. The use of these types of materials as explained by those responsible for the project to CTBUHallowed to reduce the construction time by approximately 25%.

Approximately half of Ascent’s solid wood structure is exposed and touchable, making it part of the interior and exterior design that can be enjoyed by residents who began moving in at the end of July. In your new building you will find 259 apartments, large windows that will allow natural light to enter, and a modern artificial light system. In addition, they will have a swimming pool on the sixth floor, a gym and different stores on the ground floor.

Perhaps this project, along with the previous ones, will serve as inspiration and model for a new construction paradigm that positions wood as a viable alternative for large projects. In fact, Switzerland has already set out to build a 100-meter wooden skyscraper. When it’s finished, if no one else gets ahead of it, it will become the next tallest in the world. If this trend continues to evolve, we may see more (and taller) buildings made of wood.

In Xataka | This “inverted skyscraper” with a base smaller than its penthouse wants to be one of the tallest buildings in Manhattan