It is becoming increasingly clear that wood is the building material of the future. All over the world, buildings are being built higher and higher, each time pushing the limits previously considered insurmountable. Both public and private sectors around the world are relying on wood to build sustainably. News of such buildings is becoming more and more common and gives us hope that in the near future we will also see sustainable public buildings in Romania.
In September 2021, a cultural centre with a total area of 30,000 m² built entirely of wood was opened in Skellefteå, Sweden, close to the Arctic Circle. The centre also includes a 20-storey hotel, 75 m high, which ranks it as the second tallest wooden building in the world. The project was carried out by the architectural studio White Arkitekter and the client was the municipality of Skellefteå.
Sara Cultural Centre, an award-winning project become reality
The Sara Cultural Centre is home to the Skellefteå Art Gallery, the Anna Nordlander Museum, the six-stage Västerbotten Regional Theatre, the city library and the 205-room Wood Hotel with restaurant, spa and conference centre. The municipality's ambition is for this cultural hub to be internationally recognised for its hospitality and activities, but also for its willingness to innovate and, above all, for its contribution to the idea of sustainability and sustainability.
The building has been designed for a lifetime of at least one hundred years and will have a negative carbon footprint for fifty years. For this project the architecture studio White Arkitekter received the 2018 MIPIM Future Project Award.
The project had to solve problems on several levels. In addition to the strength of the structure, the wide openings and acoustics of the spaces in the cultural areas, the combination of wooden structures with glazed areas, the flexibility of the spaces had to be taken into account.
All-wood strength structure, minimum carbon footprint, 100% renewable energy
The entire centre was built with more than 12,000 m³ of wood harvested from forests just 60 km from the city and processed at a local company also near Skellefteå. The lower part of the centre - the art gallery, museum, theatre and library - was built from laminated beams (glulam) and walls of CLT. The hotel was made of stacked 3D CLT modules placed between the 2 elevator shafts, also made entirely of CLT. No concrete was used at all for the structure, which shortened construction time and reduced the building's carbon footprint.
The design of the building was also aimed at reducing energy consumption. Solar panels installed on the roof produce renewable energy which, together with the wooden structure, offsets the carbon dioxide emissions produced by the building. The surplus energy produced by the solar panels is stored in the basement. To achieve 100% renewable energy, the centre's power system has been optimised and integrated with the city's central energy solutions.
A change of mentality
In Sweden, building with wood means tradition. Yet the industrial development of towns and cities meant that for a time, concrete houses replaced wooden ones. The UN's warning about pollution from building materials, which account for more than 38% of global carbon dioxide emissions, has raised awareness among Swedish officials and the public, prompting a return to wood. After a long period when the construction of timber-framed buildings was limited to no more than two storeys, timber buildings are now becoming increasingly tall.
Tomas Alsmarker, Head of Innovation at Swedish Wood, says the country has seen a huge change in building materials recently. Wood is now the material of choice, which is understandable when you consider that Sweden has the largest area of forest in Europe."For buildings up to 8 storeys, the question is not whether they can be made of wood but what prevents us from making them of wood."
article source: euronews.green
photos: Åke Eson Lindman and Patrick Degerman
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