The country was the first Member State to meet the renewable energy targets for 2020 set by the European Union. Emissions of carbon dioxide have been declining in Sweden in the past years. Its national environmental policy strategy includes promoting the development of new technologies in areas such as green building, water resource management, and bioenergy. The global architecture practice Perkins+Will has teamed up with structural engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti and the University of Cambridge to develop plans for a timber skyscraper, known as The River Beech Tower. ![]() Sara dreamed of a place that would be a sustainable building throughout its life cycle, “a passive house for an active culture that uses local construction techniques and materials, built by local labor.” It is worth mentioning that Sweden ranks fourth in the EU in Eco-Innovation Index. If you are now wondering why the building is named after Swedish author Sara Lidman, here is the reason. ![]() Also read: THE ROLE OF LEBANESE WOMEN RELATED TO CLIMATE CHANGE The building was completed in September 2021 and was designed to produce zero emissions by employing a hybrid system of solar panels, heat pumps, and batteries connected to the city’s electricity and water supply network, enabling it to provide energy to the surrounding neighborhood. They work in an international context to enable sustainable life through the art of architecture. It was designed by White Arkitekter, one of Scandinavia’s top architectural practices. The Sara Cultural Centre is named after the famous Swedish writer Sara Lidman and holds a library, two art galleries, a conference center, and a hotel. But this is not all! The building also counts on highly efficient solar panels to power it and store excess energy in the basement. The 75-meter-high Sara Cultural Centre, which is the second tallest wooden tower globally, will capture a total of 9 million kilograms of carbon dioxide in its lifespan. Besides the mentioned activities, the Swedish city is now home to a cultural center built from over 12,000 cubic meters of timber that comes from forests just 60km away from town. Among other highlights, Skeleftea is recognized for its coastal life, wildlife, and fresh food from its local farms. Skellefteå is one of the main cities that attract tourists in the Swedish Lapland and the subarctic region due to the various activities that it has to offer. Wooden construction is no novelty in Skellefteå since this city has taken advantage of the abundance of nearby forestland, for construction, since the 18th century. Fortunately, timber sequesters carbon dioxide, keeping it away from the atmosphere and permanently storing it. Air pollution is one of the most problematic environmental concerns associated with cities, and some of its causes involve traffic, heating systems, and construction sites. A Swedish city recently finished a wooden skyscraper that can capture 9 million kilograms of carbon dioxide.Īccording to data from UN-Habitat Centre, cities consume 78% of the world’s energy and produce over 60% of greenhouse gas emissions. This gives us much larger structural pieces to work with, which changes the scale of what we can do.” The other benefit of this engineered wood is that it’s rapidly renewable through sustainable forestry (at least in theory).Currently, the world is in a race against time to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, and city planners are finding creative ways to battle against climate change. “The change is that we are asking them to keep the panels whole. “The manufacturers typically cut large panels of the engineered wood into small beams,” explains Green. Engineered wood–smaller pieces glued together, not so differently from what you see in IKEA furniture–can create a stronger metawood that we’re already using in smaller scale construction. Green’s work is fueled by more than passion or tradition: The last several decades have seen several breakthroughs in wood technology. The question I ask is have we lost our spirit to innovate when we are just now catching up to century old ideas?” “Today our building codes don’t conceive of building 7-stories in wood, but 100 years ago it was common in our region. “As I write this, I sit in a 105-year-old building that is 7-stories tall and supported by solid wood columns all the way into the parking garage below the ground,” Green writes Co.Design. And he’s working on multiple projects, including a 30-story building for Vancouver, that would see this happen. ![]() He wants to build a new generation of high-rises out of wood. Architect Michael Green has an idea, an old idea.
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