cross-laminated timber

Foster + Partners has been given the green light for an ambitious new project in London. The mixed-use development will feature significant sustainable design and, according to the firm, will be one of the city's largest timber buildings.

The SuperHub, by De Zwarte Hond, offers an excellent example of sustainable timber design. The Dutch market hall is topped by a "cathedral-like" ceiling and features a flexible interior layout that should ensure continued use for decades to come.

Henning Larsen Architects continues its enthusiastic use of sustainable timber construction with a new experience center designed for automaker Volvo. World of Volvo takes the form of three tree trunks embedded into a heavily landscaped plot.

Work has been completed on one of the world's tallest timber towers. Reaching an impressive height of 75 m, the Sara Cultural Centre, by White Arkitekter, is also very sustainable and the firm expects it to become carbon negative after 50 years.

The tall timber construction boom continues with a tower slated for Berlin. Designed by Mad arkitekter, it will integrate greenery and feature a hybrid wood and concrete structure that allows it to reach a considerable height of 98 m.

Happel Cornelisse Verhoeven recently completed a new fire station in Antwerp, Belgium. Sustainable design includes solar power and rainwater collection, while the eye-catching red brick on the outside contrasts with wood and concrete on the inside.

Assuming Vincent Callebaut's Rainbow Tree is actually realized, the greenery-covered timber tower will rise to an impressive height of 115 m. It will also feature significant sustainable design, including solar panels and wind turbines.

C.F. Møller Architects has designed what it calls Sweden's tallest wooden building. The residential project is topped by a green roof and has been specifically designed so that it can be dismantled and recycled if required.

As we continue to see, prefab homes can be quite easy on the eye, with the latest example an elegant rectangular-shaped home built into the slopes of the Austrian alps.

Moisture is usually bad news for timber, but a group of researchers in Germany is investigating how it can actually be harnessed for more efficient construction, manifesting in a magnificent tower made up of timber pieces that twisted themselves into shape.

Love them or loathe them, wooden skyscrapers are on the rise, especially in Europe and North America. This latest example is designed by Team V Architectuur and will rise to 21 floors in Amsterdam. Dubbed Haut, the project is due to begin construction in late 2017.

Forget the "Shard," the "Walkie Talkie" and the "Cheese Grater," the real revolution in UK buildings is in timber construction, which saves on build time, carbon emissions and boasts energy efficiency. One new apartment block in Chelsea is calculated to use the same energy as a Smart car.