The future of timber building

The brains behind the world's biggest all cross-laminated timber building, architect Andrew Waugh from Waugh Thistleton is coming to Australia to discuss future building materials following his experiences building Dalston Lane.

Dalston Lane (above) is a 121-unit development made of cross-laminated timber (CLT) structure and will become tallest of its kind in the UK once built. It will feature over 12,500 sqm, of residential space and over 3,460 sqm of commercial space.

Dalston Lane is built of cross-laminated timber (CLT).   CLT experts have calculated that the building will save 2,400 tonnes of carbon, compared to an equivalent block with a concrete frame.

By using CLT construction, the embodied carbon is 2.5 times less than that of an equivalent concrete frame. Taking into account that timber stores carbon by absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, which is also known as ‘sequestered carbon’, the structure can be considered as ‘carbon negative’.