A wooden skyscraper that Austrian architects say would be the tallest of its kind in the world is to be built in Vienna next year.
The 84m HoHo project in the Seestadt Aspern area, one of Europe’s largest urban development sites, will house a hotel, apartments, a restaurant, a wellness center and offices, and is expected to cost about £60 million (US$77 million).
Project developer Caroline Palfy, of Kerbler, which is behind the building, said the firm chose wood because of its environmental benefits.
With 76 percent of the building expected to be made from wood, architects say it would save 2,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions when compared with a similar concrete structure, the equivalent of driving a car 40km every day for 1,300 years.
Compared with wood, which absorbs carbon dioxide from the air while a tree is growing, the production of concrete causes high levels of carbon emissions.
However, the Vienna fire department has concerns about the wooden structure, and is working with the architects to test their plans.
“The main factor is that everyone wants to build higher and higher buildings. An 84m high building in Europe is not usual, and there are a lot of necessities that have to be realized,” fire department spokesman Christian Wegner said.
“A few of us were upset, because it was crazy to present an idea like this that has not been discussed with everyone yet,” Wegner said.
Other high-rise buildings in Vienna have attracted concerns from politicians, who have described their height as “exorbitant” and complained they were not being filled.
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