Photo credit: Figure x Lee Kuo-Min Studio
The first-ever cross-laminated timber building in Taiwan is now located in Taichung – an an impressive feat of engineering due to the country’s hot and humid climate.
Photo credit: Figure x Lee Kuo-Min Studio
Photo credit: Figure x Lee Kuo-Min Studio
The wooden high-rise building is the headquarters of WoodTek and is designed by Origin Architects and Planners.
Shaped like an upside-down staircase, the aim of the project was to promote wood as a renewable building materials and a green alternative to concrete and steel.
Photo credit: Figure x Lee Kuo-Min Studio
Photo credit: Figure x Lee Kuo-Min Studio
In addition, the use of CLT was to showcase the resilience of the prefabricated CLT panels, which have a lifespan of close to 200 years and the ability to tolerate up to 1,100 degrees Celsius and withstand 10 tons of pressure per square metre.
Photo credit: Figure x Lee Kuo-Min Studio
Photo credit: Figure x Lee Kuo-Min Studio
“By making this building from theory to reality, we are writing a new page in Taiwan’s history of Architecture,” wrote the architects. “We also tried to break the stereotype of ‘boxlike’ CLT construction image. In it’s exterior shape, architectural expression is articulated by the combination of solid walls and transparent glass staircase. In side of the buildings, light penetrating through this staircase casts a dramatic space effect.”
