Timber Rising

For decades, timber architecture meant cabins and Scandinavian churches. That era is over. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glulam are now structural systems capable of delivering buildings at scales that would have been unthinkable ten years ago.

The environmental case is straightforward: a cubic metre of CLT stores roughly one tonne of CO2. A cubic metre of concrete emits roughly 0.4 tonnes. When you multiply across an entire building, timber doesn't just reduce carbon — it reverses the equation. The building becomes a carbon sink.

But the architects featured here didn't choose timber for the environmental case alone. They chose it because it produces spaces that feel different. Warm, resonant, human-scaled. Concrete and steel create impressive volumes. Timber creates places you want to stay in.