Building in wood is getting serious

Build more and emit less. To solve the housing shortage in the Netherlands, more than one million homes must be built by 2050. The current problem, however, is that this exceeds environmental standards. So how do we get this done? And is wood construction the solution?

New construction projects are at a standstill due to international agreements on CO2 reduction and nitrogen. With the current way of building, approximately 55 million tons of CO2 are released. To prevent this, building with wood is the alternative. The new cross-laminated timber, or CLT: Cross Laminated Timber, does not cause any emissions, but rather stores them! With the extremely strong and fire-safe CLT, even high-rise buildings can be realized. In short, CLT is the ‘new concrete’.

Watch the episode at the VPRO to learn more about this new form of building.