The solution for densely populated cities: wooden skyscrapers

By 2050, 10 billion people will be living on the planet, two thirds of them in cities. This means that space will become scarcer and scarcer. The solution is high-rise buildings. However, concrete and steel, which are primarily used to build upwards, have an immense_{CO2 footprint}.

Concrete is as polluting as oil and diesel

A video in the British magazine "The Economist" provides an answer to the problem: Wood, the natural material that has been used to build with for thousands of years.

British architect Andrew Waugh from the London firm Waugh Thistleton is of the opinion that we should actually only build with wood instead of concrete and steel. For him, concrete and steel are in the same category as oil and diesel in terms of environmental impact.

75% less_{CO2 emissions} thanks to timber high-rise buildings

According to the video, statistics support the architect's statement: According to a study, a 125-meter-high skyscraper made of wood emits up to 75% less_CO2 than its concrete and steel counterpart.

Andrew Waugh: "You build twice as fast with wood."

For the architect, however, there is even more to the natural building material: building with wood is incredibly fast: "You can build at least twice as fast as with concrete," says Andrew Waugh in the video by "The Economist". He should know: Waugh's office designed the first timber high-rise block in the UK back in 2009 and recently completed one of the largest timber buildings in the world.

Wooden high-rise video: several hundred thousand clicks in a week

The Economist's video is attracting huge interest: After being published at the beginning of February, it has already been viewed several hundred thousand (!) times on platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.