Brock Commons Tallwood House

While most buildings today are constructed with cement and steel, structures made predominantly from wood are making a comeback. A new 18-story residence hall on the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver is taking the trend to new heights, as the world’s tallest wooden skyscraper. 

At a height of 174 feet, it’s safe to say that the Tallwood House, a building in the Brock Commons residence, is the Burj Khalifa of lumber. The “Plyscraper” is the tallest building with a predominantly wooden structure to ever be built, and it can safely and sustainably house over 400 university students.

Of course, to construct such a towering building entirely out of wood would be practically impossible, so the architects had to use small amounts concrete and steel to construct the building. That said, wood makes up the vast majority of the building’s structure, including wooden floors, columns, and exterior panels. This eco-friendly design reduces the residence hall’s carbon output by 2,432 metric tons of Co2, the equivalent of removing 500 cars from the road for an entire year.