High-rise wood buildings could boost Brazil’s timber industry

A growth in high-rise wood buildings could boost timber production in Brazil and see the country's trees being used for more buildings globally, a Canadian architect has claimed.

Michael Green, an architect at Vancouver-based firm Mgb Architecture, made the claims at the recent Green Cities conference in Melbourne. Green is currently using a grant to design a 30-storey timber building in British Colombia. He said he wanted to use the prototype to prove that high-rise wood buildings were economically viable and offered an investment opportunity.

Green said the design of the 30-storey building, which will use laminated strand lumber (LSL), was ideally suited to fast-growing species of trees. He said this would have particular benefits for countries such as Brazil where it could reverse deforestation and boost afforestation.

Green commented, "It's not realistic, for example, to expect Brazil to plant crops that will be cut down 50 years from now. If you can use fast-growing tree species - eucalyptus is a good example - and find new technologies to laminate the fibre together and introduce cast wood products, which is what LSL is, then you have potential all around the world to build large buildings made of wood.''