Washington Post: timber high-rises take on the skyline

A cultural centre made of 100,000 trees

The 20-storey Sara Cultural Center cost 110 million US dollars and was built almost entirely from prefabricated timber elements: 10,000 cubic metres of cross-laminated timber and 2,200 cubic metres of glulam, joined with 550,000 screws. According to architect Robert Schmitz of White Arkitekter, the building contains around 100,000 trees. Over its lifetime it is considered carbon negative: 5,631 tonnes of CO₂ from harvesting, transport, processing, construction and operation are set against 9,095 tonnes of CO₂ sequestered in the timber. The timber comes from Holmen's FSC-certified forests within a radius of around 50 kilometres.

The only path forward to get us to carbon-neutral buildings is timber.

From Milwaukee to Winterthur

The quote comes from Vancouver architect Michael Green. The tallest timber building today is the 25-storey Ascent in Milwaukee, and approved projects include the 32-storey Rocket & Tigerli in Winterthur and the 50-storey C6 in Perth. According to the World Green Building Council, buildings cause at least 39 percent of global emissions, 11 percent of them from materials and construction. Andrew Lawrence of Arup, however, sees the greatest potential in mid-rise buildings such as schools, apartment blocks and offices.

How Timber Carbon sees it

The Sara Cultural Center shows that the climate balance of a timber building can be quantified in concrete terms. Timber Carbon, launched in 2026 as a spin-off of Timber Finance, quantifies, certifies and monetises the carbon removed in mass timber buildings as carbon removal credits on the voluntary carbon market. More on the race in the US is in our article on the planned timber tower in Milwaukee, and our Build biobased page explains what developers can do.