Wood shapes the future of sustainable architecture

Abstract

Over the past few decades, the concept of sustainable building has become the mainstream among architects, urban designers, and the building industry. The use of appropriate building materials that demonstrate constructive environmental attributes is of prime importance to realize green buildings. In this context, wood, as a renewable building material, exhibits numerous significant ecological characteristics, including low carbon impact, and low embodied energy. In addition, the simplicity of the timber structural systems, along with their sustainability and biocompatibility, makes them more competitive for constructing buildings than other structural systems. Accordingly, the architectural profession witnessed many exciting experiments using wood in tall buildings as well as in the urban context. However, the main objective of this research is to examine the specific natural characteristics of wood, which qualifies it to be an appropriate replacement for fossil-fuel-based products such as steel and concrete. It also intends to discuss some representative architectural projects, which successfully employed wood as their primary structural system. However, this study aims to highlight the significance of wood as a potentially sustainable resource for the future of the building industry.