Mass timber projects from notable architecture firms such as LEVER Architecture, KPF, and Gensler are on view at The Skyscraper Museum as part of an exhibition Tall Timber: The Future of Cities in Wood. More and more architects are turning to climate-conscious building materials, such as mass timber, and as evidenced in this research heavy show there’s minimal reasons why not to use it. Through architectural models, videos, and drawings that encapsulate the intersection of nature and technology, Tall Timber makes a convincing case for the future of the built environment.
Visitors entering the exhibition get a crash course into the production of the building material. Videos mounted in the gallery space highlight how the material is fire tested and showcase the speed of construction. A charred column displays the durability of the material when exposed to fire. Tactile components of the show give museum-goers an opportunity to have a closer look at and even touch CLT and other wood products.
The show is anchored by a series of research-based case studies and real-life examples of buildings constructed using the practices the show is promoting. Among these is Flora by Michael Green Architects. The 9-story, mixed-use mass timber construction, finishing soon in Paris, combines European glamour with climate-conscious design. Other project’s like Proto-Model X (PMX) by Gensler test the technical requirements of the building material. When completed, PMX hopes to be the world’s tallest net-zero timber building. It is set to have 35-stories of retail, offices, and residential programs.
Also on view is Framework from LEVER Architecture, which prides itself as “the first wood high-rise design in the U.S. to receive approval for construction.” It also centers work from Korb + Associates, the firm behind the Ascent, recently declared the world’s tallest timber structure by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. At just 25 stories the record-breaking building is the one to beat. In-the-pipeline projects on view consider what it would take to build a mass timber that is 30, 50, or even 80 stories high.
The Tall Timber exhibition will run through August.
