Schmidt Hammer Lassen to Build World’s Tallest Timber Tower

Danish architecture practice Schmidt Hammer Lassen has won an international competition to build a new residential building in the Swiss city of Winterthur which, when completed, will be the “world’s tallest residential building with a load-bearing structure in wood”.

With completion expected to take four years, the “Rocket & Tigerli” tower will measure at 100 metres-tall. It will make use of wood as a construction material as opposed to concrete, in a bid to increase the building’s sustainable credentials. The practice say that this record breaking structure marks a major milestone in the construction of timber buildings – “not solely because of its 100 metres, which sets the record for residential buildings with a load-bearing timber construction,” they add, “but also because it introduces an innovative construction system.” The system in question sees the core of the building – or its “load-bearing structure” – made from wood rather than concrete, reducing both beam weight and the amount of embedded carbon.

Once finished, the structure will encompass regular housing, student housing, retail spaces, and a spa, hotel, and restaurant. The scheme is organised into four buildings which open out onto a green plaza. Each building has its own visual identity to help create a strong sense of belonging and identification among the residents, who they hope will congregate in the communal areas and outdoor spaces. The building’s facades are intended to feel in-keeping with the surrounding architecture, and will be cladded in dark red and yellow terracotta bricks and combined with details in dusty green to reflect colour palettes of historical buildings in the area.

“The city of Winterthur, Northeast of Zürich, has formerly been known for its machine industry and locomotive production. Today, the city has become a progressive place of higher education and culture, but in the Lokstadt area – a city within the city – they cherish its 19th century industrial environment,” said the architects.

“The architecture exhibits the high degree of detail that characterises the industrial architecture from that period of time. In the development of the project, the team has identified the qualities of the area as a guiding principle for the transformation.”

Inside, residential spaces have been designed with spaciousness in mind in a bid to “challenge the classical high-rise typology” of stuffy and dark apartments, and huge, double-height windows allow daylight to flood into the space.

Elsewhere in architecture, Sou Fujimoto has revealed designs for a new bowl-shaped plaza in Hida, Japan.