Atrium Ljungberg, a Swedish development company, plans to start construction in 2025 of the world's largest urban construction project in wood. The first buildings are planned to be completed in 2027.
The project extends over 250,000 square meters (7000 office spaces, 2000 Dwellings). The developers maintain the real estate industry is absolutely crucial in the green transition, as buildings account for as much as 40 percent of the world's CO2 emissions.
Using wood the plan is to reduce the project’s carbon footprint by up to 40%, compared with building in concrete and steel. Wood when used for building, locks up the carbon that the trees absorbed from the atmosphere while growing. Some concrete and steel is still used in places like the foundations, but the overall amounts will be greatly reduced. As wooden buildings are much lighter, their foundations can be smaller.
Stockholm Wood City marks a new era for sustainable architecture and urban development. The site at Sickla, in a southern area of Stockholm, will house an additional 7,000 office spaces and 2,000 homes. It will be a mixed urban environment with a mix of workplaces, housing, restaurants, and shops. From tenants, there is a strong demand for innovative, sustainable solutions – a demand that we meet with this initiative”, Annica Ånäs continues. The advantages of wooden buildings are many, both for the environment and for people's health and well-being. As shown by various research studies, wooden buildings provide better air quality, reduce stress, increase productivity and store carbon dioxide throughout the time they are in use.
The Chair of Altrium Ljunberg Annica Ånäs states: "Our industry leaves a big mark, and it is important for us to make a positive difference in both the shorter and longer term. We want to create an environment where our customers, those who will live and work here, can participate in the development and design of the city district of the future."
Fire Risk has always beena concern with timber. Testing has now shown that engineered timber is extremely fire resistant. To help win approval for the construction of a 87M tall building in Wisconsin the us Forest Service carried out tests on the laminated timber columns it would use. After finding them difficult to burn, the columns were awarded an exemplary three-hour fire-resistance rating because they maintained their structural integrity.
Altrium Ljunberg is looking for a return on investment of 20% or better.
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