This Is The World’s Tallest Timber Tower – And It Would Be A Big Achievement In Sustainable Design

A futuristic new residential tower has been designed by Danish firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen. The building is named Rocket&Tigerli and it will be the world’s tallest timber tower once complete, with a staggering height of 100 m (328 ft).

Rocket&Tigerli is being created in collaboration with Cometti Truffer Hodel and will be in the Swiss city of Winterthur, near Zürich. The project comprises a residential space, student housing, a restaurant, retail spaces, a sky bar, and a hotel. The renders show the buildings topped with greenery and the interiors look light-filled and open, with the decor boasting the natural beauty of the wood.

The tower’s exterior will be clad in terracotta (which, like timber, can be produced sustainably) and it will have a timber frame and a timber core. There are hybrid timber towers planned that will be even taller. Their hybrid nature means that they have a concrete core hosting the elevator and staircases.

“The project marks a milestone in the construction of timber buildings – not solely because of its 100 meters (328 ft), which set the record for residential buildings with a load-bearing timber construction, but also because it introduces an innovative construction system that examines wood as a natural replacement for concrete,” explained the firm. “The Swiss company Implenia and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Zürich, ETH, have worked together in developing the new system, which allows the construction of taller timber buildings.

“In the new system, the concrete core has been replaced with wood, resulting in the fact that the individual beam comes in at a lower weight. This makes it possible to build taller constructions while, at the same time, ensuring that the entire building process achieves a lower amount of embedded carbon.”

Rocket&Tigerli is expected to be completed and ready for residents to move into by 2026.