Sustainable buildings adorn the Olympics

Sustainability ambitions were high for the Paris Olympics. Smart use of existing buildings meant there was little need to build anything new. And where they did, wood was used extensively – not least in the new Centre Aquatics swimming venue.

Wood provides more space for students

The Michael Kirby Building has given Macquarie University in Sydney a landmark that points the way to the future – a formerly austere and closed-off concrete building has been transformed into a bright and welcoming space, dominated by warm and fragrant wood.

Three buildings in one block

In the housing of the future, social sustainability, intergenerational exchanges and environmentally friendly construction methods go hand in hand.

Creative studios for children

A new preschool will help to draw people into the village, partly through its central location and partly through its design. A line of six volumes with pitched roofs provides the carcass of the preschool, within which the interior is structured like its own little village.

Library underground with plants above

Plough the fields on sunny days and read books when it rains. That was the idea behind the library created in the corner of a field and run by an agricultural company.

Circular opening shapes light and distributes loads

The root of the Rehmannia plant is commonly used in herbal medicine, in a tradition that dates a long way back through history.

Sara Kulturhus wins the Swedish Wood Award

The winner of the 14th Swedish Wood Award is Sara Kulturhus, a 20-storey arts centre with a distinctly wooden feel inside and out.

New typology ties culture district together

The Holzmarkt area in Berlin now has the area’s first wooden building sitting among the mixed and seemingly improvised architecture. Clad in bright red wood, the three-storey building serves as a main entrance to the area. 

Tree trunks and rounded shapes in a new frame

An office block that was considered exemplary in the 1970s has now been updated for the modern age using softly rounded forms.

Office block built to be dismantled

new circular timber office building – now the headquarters of Save the Children Norway

Double glulam arches creating space for both balls and pucks

When the City of Gothenburg’s sports department commissioned the new sports hall, it was subject to several building restrictions.

AI is the future of forest management

The Swedish forest is being laser scanned from the air and ground. Powerful IT systems with smart algorithms allow researchers to look hundreds of years into the future.

Innovation and technology to inspire new houses

Czech forestry company Kloboucká lesní wanted its new headquarters to be a place of innovation and technology.

Sphere signposts route to knowledge

The Wisdome in Gothenburg is the largest of five new visualisation domes in Sweden.

Temple complex with different functions in a harmonious whole

Shrouded in gentle mist, the temple complex looks like a mirage in the damp greenery of the South Downs National Park in Hampshire, UK.

Challenging shapes for visuals

The National Museum of Science and Technology’s newest attraction, the Wisdome, opens soon in Stockholm. The spherical dome sits beneath a vaulted ceiling, exploring just how far you can take wood construction.

Two chapels for new activities

Two new chapels in Gustaf Vasa Church aim to encourage human interaction. The chapels are located inside the church, but are freestanding for easy removal at a later date.

Flooring given new life

The oak shingles adorning the façade and roof give the Norwegian holiday home a subtle elegance among the pines. They also exemplify how to make good use of waste material, in this case from a flooring company.

Space for creativity & recovery

A solitary recreational building stands in the middle of a sloping glade, surrounded by boulders and forest, the cuboid box nestling into its natural setting on the east coast of America.

Changing library roles

In recent years, two newly built libraries have challenged the function of the traditional institution. These are individual creations that still maintain a relationship with existing architecture.

Olympic facility with smart solutions

When Nikken Sekkei Design was commissioned by the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo to design a facility for ceremonies, athletes and the media, the brief was rather unusual. 40,000 timber components would be borrowed from local regions all over Japan.

The gramophone works

The whole of the new structure is made from spruce glulam and CLT, except for a connecting deck in steel that carries the loads from the new structure along secondary beams and into existing concrete posts.

The Cederhusen building

Stockholm’s first large apartment blocks in CLT and one of the world’s biggest wood building projects in an inner-city environment.

The Natural Pavilion

Almost entirely bio-based building, where all the materials are renewable and fossil free or they are reused.

Playful sustainable factory

The new Norwegian furniture factory sits discreetly in the forest. Smart architectural solutions keep emissions and energy use low in the colourful building.

Innovation in open office

The office block in Helsinki aims to generate interest in the country’s wood production. The new owner also emphasised the importance of a welcoming and technically advanced work environment.

Space for fun behind strict shell

With separate outdoor areas for each preschool class off the cards, the solution was softly shaped terraces and private niches. The rounded look provides a fine contrast with the austere building.

Space formed by frame and ornamentation

An imaginary forest walk leads into the Japanese city of Takasaki’s new chapel, where architect Takaharu Tezuka has interwoven art and architecture into one. The chapel is not just for prayer, but also the venue for concerts and student gatherings.

Rock solid design

To achieve as minimal a footprint as possible, the architects suspended the wide, shallow house between the Bohuslän cliffs on Hamburgö, following the principle of the tied-arch bridge.

Discreetly placed on a slope

It began as an experiment to see how one might build a CLT house with a considerate approach to the plot, no insulation in the walls and the surface layer exposed inside and out.

Extension with teeth

A 1970s house outside Melbourne boasts an elegant upward extension. The sawtooth roof recalls old farmsteads and forms a cohesive whole with the interior, where everything is made of CLT.

Trä! – Issue 1, 2022

Focus on the climate and new solutions

Two new buildings in Västerås will be the model for climate-positive, crowdfunded apartment blocks in several other locations across Sweden. Wood takes the lead role, but other materials used in the project also have improved climate credentials.

Emotional response to an office

A new office block becomes a welcoming landmark in Hovås’ new mixed district. Behind the inversely stepped façade, the glulam structure creates flexible spaces with generous ceiling heights.

Village cares about recycling

Kamikatsu is a Japanese community that embraces waste. The recycling centre is made up of local wood and recycled materials from local residents. The site also has a hotel and a reuse & recycling store.

Hidden spaces and geometry

Behind the dark, egg-shaped façade lies a light and dynamic home with vertical flows. Concealed between the inner and outer shell are small, private niches.

Trä! – Issue 4, 2021

Openness with the forest as a metaphor

The Swedish forest meets Arabic patterns at Expo 2020 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The pavilion is designed like a forest glade, with decorative tree trunks supporting eight treehouses ten metres up in the air.

Flexible centre begins on a high

The newly opened Sara Kulturhus is an arts centre with a hotel. Acoustics and flexibility are key in ensuring that one of the world’s tallest wooden buildings can host a wide variety of activities.

New take in heritage setting

Two new buildings add to the site of an old farm in Halland, Sweden. The new additions have a more modern look, but the material and design chime with the landscape’s traditional heritage.

Terrain governs position

The skiing and the landscape attract people to Tänndalen, Sweden, where 25 new homes on the north face of the mountain have been sited and designed in line with the topography.

Trä! – Issue 3, 2021

New heights in Skellefteå

Sara Kulturhus, one of the tallest wooden buildings in the world, has changed the cityscape in Skellefteå. The project is all about local, from the raw material to the workforce and technology.

Four new storeys in Umeå

On top of a mall in Umeå, an upward extension now offers up to four storeys of new housing. The light CLT frame has made this central newbuild possible.

Meeting at the nave

While Paris’ usual grand exhibition hall is being renovated, a temporary new venue has been built in a park near the Eiffel Tower. The prefabricated arches create a low-key elegance and allow for a post-free structure.

A calm oasis among the old

An infill development in Paris focuses on quality of life and the environment. A circle of grey façades conceals a new apartment block in wood, inspired by Japanese ideas of tranquillity.

Cover:Kilströmskaj in Karlskrona, Sweden by
Wingårdhs. Photo David Valldeby