Construction work on the world’s tallest residential tower built entirely from timber is to get under way after the project was granted planning permission.
Murray Grove in Hackney, London is, at nine storeys high, the “tallest timber residential building in the world”, according to architects Waugh Thistleton, and will feature innovative load-bearing walls and floor slabs made from wood alongside timber stairs and lift cores.
Built using a cross-laminated panel system from Austrian manufacturer KLH, Murray Grove will feature structural panels up to 9m in length that are pre-cut to receive windows and doors, and the 29-apartment development will be erected in less than nine weeks according to Waugh Thistleton.
The architects added that the use of timber ahead of traditional high-rise building materials means that the building will store more than 180 tonnes of carbon in its core frame and will save a further 125 tonnes from entering the atmosphere by not using reinforced concrete during construction, saving 21 years-worth of carbon emissions for a building of its size.
The UK Timber Frame Association (UKTFA) has said that the project is “fascinating” and could open up “a whole new segment of the market for structural timber”.
“It’s obviously not platform timber frame as we know it, but it shows there are many other innovative ways to construct new buildings out of timber,” said a UKTFA spokesperson.
The approval of planning permission at Murray Grove comes after a number of high-profile multi-storey timber construction fires, including in London, Hatfield and the University of Northumbria in Newcastle, where a £100m student accommodation project was damaged by the blaze.
