Written By Alasdair Sandford

They’re not the kind of surroundings you might associate with a skyscraper. Potential visitors to Norway are told that the area around the tranquil Mjøsa lake is “renowned for its cultural landscapes and incredible manor farms”, a “countryside paradise”. But the Mjøstårnet tower that dominates the waterfront in the local town of Brumunddal is also a major attraction – not just for its hotel rooms, apartments, restaurant or rooftop terrace, but because of its iconic status. The 18-storey, 85.4-metre-high structure was officially named the world's tallest wooden building when it was built in 2019. The mastermind behind its construction was local man Arthur Buchardt – an investor and developer with projects throughout Scandinavia – who had a point to prove on sustainability.

“He wanted to show that it was possible to build a very high wooden building in this town with materials and suppliers which were very close to the site. So, I guess that was the main goal for him, to prove the world that it could be done,” says Harald Liven, Structural Designer at Moelven Limtre, a Scandinavian industrial group that provides sustainable products and systems for the construction industry and that worked on the project. Brumunddal has become a modern engineering hub, applying hi-tech to timber drawn from the abundant forests nearby – and Mjøstårnet is its showcase. Engineers drew on experience in building large wooden structures that began with the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer.
“We have this CNC machine (editor’s note: Computer Numerical Control – an automated process where a tool is operated by computer) for cutting and drilling in millimetric precision. We didn't have this technology back in 1994 because then it was done by hand. So today we are much more accurate on this type of construction. We brought the pieces to the building site, and we put it together like IKEA furniture,” Liven explains. “Our fabric comes from only 15 kilometres from the site. The engineering company was only 30 kilometres away. The company which did the facade elements was only 100 metres from the site. And of course, the wooden materials were cut from the woods a short distance away – all supplies and knowhow from the same area of Norway.”

In 2019, the same year the tower was built, a World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) report highlighted the carbon emissions released during a building’s construction and eventual destruction – as well as during its operational life from the likes of heating. It found that these emissions, largely overlooked historically, contributed around 11% of all global emissions. More recently, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) have reported broadly similar findings. “Today the current pattern of resources is what we call the linear system where it's just take, make, use and dispose,” says Ambrose Dodoo, professor of building technology at Linnaeus University in Sweden, and a member of a UN panel that works for the better use of the Earth’s resources. “When you look at the materials’ footprint – mineral materials like stones, limestone to produce cement, plus biomass and fossil fuels – all these materials need to be processed, which requires a lot of energy. So, the sector needs to rethink how it uses materials more efficiently – and use materials which are regenerative or can be cycled back into the economy.”

The use of timber for construction nosedived during the industrial revolution, while that of concrete and steel soared. But in recent years the global recycled wood market has been enjoying a modest renaissance – aided and driven by climate targets, new regulations, sustainable production methods and technological innovations that have brought a new range of engineered wood products. In Sweden, between 10 and 15% of all multi-storey buildings and 90% of small houses are built with timber. Timber frames account for almost a third of all building projects, a two-fold increase since 2018. “Wood is a good material if it comes from a sustainably managed forest,” Dodoo explains. “Processing requires less energy and therefore results in less emissions than alternative materials. Wood materials store carbon in themselves, and another benefit of using wood in a country like Sweden is also that we get wood residuals. The Swedish energy system is heavily dependent on these residuals – for instance I'm in the city of Växjö and the heating system for the whole city of over 60,000 people is based on wood residuals.”

But not all parts of Europe and the world are blessed with plentiful forests, and both public and industry perceptions of the suitability of wood for construction can be negative. “Most people still view wood as rather old-fashioned… This image is maybe a barrier that must be overcome,” says Anders Kjellow, an expert on wood, biomass and sustainable materials at the Danish Technological Institute. He is also the coordinator of two projects co-funded by the European Union aimed at boosting the use of wood in the construction sector. Woodcircles seeks to increase its reuse, to reduce waste and the consumption of resources, as currently, less than half of European waste-wood is recycled. The TIMBERHAUS project aims to develop circular solutions for the greater use of timber in the building industry. “If you look at European forestry and the resources that go into construction, it’s almost only soft woods, mainly Norway spruce. The whole European forest produces something like 850 million cubic metres annually, but the part we use that is Norway spruce is a minor percentage. TIMBERHAUS aims to get better use from the forest’s resources, underutilised species which are mainly hardwood. We also look at how to reuse them better in construction,” Kjellow explains.
Another objective is to respect cultural traditions and architectural design – to avoid “everyone living in square, one-size-fits-all homes that look like train wagons,” he adds. One of three pilot projects, Baia Mare in northwestern Romania, has “a really strong cultural tradition with building with wood” from local dense forests that the project will seek to revive following a century of industrialisation that turned the city into the most polluted in the country. “We're not actually erecting buildings, we’re making ‘digital pilots’: showing the cities what they could do, giving them architectural drawings and co-creating schemes with the cities and their stakeholders through workshops,” Kjellow adds. The most advanced pilot is a plan to develop a model residential district in Berlin on the site of the former Tegel airport, where a local partner has extensive expertise in timber construction. A recent project summit in the German capital identified “key barriers” to progress, and Kjellow identifies a “gap in the level of knowledge” between experts, and builders and contractors: “the education level needs to be elevated all the way from academic institutions to the people putting the nails in,” he says.

TIMBERHAUS supports the EU Forest Strategy, which “recognises the central and multifunctional role of forests” in the drive towards “a sustainable and climate-neutral economy by 2050”. Experts say the pace of change is too slow. “The construction industry is hugely conservative, so it's very difficult to get change going on a big scale. Price and short-term costs are very high priorities, and with wood construction, due to the knowledge gap in the value chain you may face an additional risk premium to your project,” says Kjellow. For Ambrose Dodoo, the need for change is “more than urgent” and should have happened “yesterday”. But he adds: “policymakers and scientists should have dialogue on how to implement change so that our businesses can also survive. You don't want to implement policies that stifle innovation, making companies less competitive.”
The many visitors who have come from as far as China and Japan to see Norway’s Mjøstårnet tower illustrate the power of wood to capture people’s imagination. “We must build smarter than we have been doing over the last few centuries,” says Harald Liven. “I think in the next 10, 20, 30 years, with new buildings you’ll have to show that you can reuse all the materials; if we look back 100, 200, 300 years, they also used the materials again. This is not a new idea, I think they were smarter back then! It may be an old way to think, but we can look back and learn from what they did all those years ago.”