Work Completed on World’s Tallest Wood Building

BRUMUNDDAL, NORWAY—Work has completed on the world’s tallest wooden building here—The Mjösa Tower here.

A formal opening of the 85.4-meter tall wood building was held on Friday, March 15. The Mjösa Tower includes a hotel, private homes and office space.

Metsä Wood’s light and green Kerto® LVL (laminated veneer lumber) products were used in the intermediate floor elements of the building. Metsä Wood is headquartered in Espoo, Finland.

Øystein Elgsaas, architect and partner at Voll Arkitekter, says The Mjösa Tower symbolizes environmentally friendly thinking in construction and offers proof that tall buildings can be built using wood. The design assignment of creating such a tall wooden building was a positive challenge, he adds.

“We want to inspire others to build the same way,” says Elgsaas.

The structure of the wood tower building is similar to conventional buildings, but the dimensions of the elements are much larger than usual. Both the structure and facade of the Mjösa Tower are made of wood. The load-bearing structure consists of glulam columns, beams and diagonal members, which suits high-rise buildings well, Metsä Wood states. The first 10 floors are made of prefabricated wooden elements. The decks on the upper floors are made of concrete, to restrain the building and keep it from swaying.

The aim of the project was to build using sustainable, local wood products and local suppliers. In addition to Norwegian glulam and CLT, the building made use of Kerto LVL products delivered from Finland.

“Kerto LVL helped us to make Mjösa Tower as sustainable as possible,” says Rune Abrahamsen, CEO at Moelven Limtre. He adds that his firm looks forward to new high-rise projects.

As cities continue to expand globally, the demand for more sustainable construction grows, and the use of wood has an important role in it, Abrahamsen says.