Lunchlecture Arcadis

The Urban Woods: the tallest residential building without a concrete core

'The Urban Woods' is currently under construction in Delft: a unique apartment complex built entirely from wood. Whereas concrete normally forms the foundation, this project features an innovative load-bearing structure made of timber. The building’s strength comes from a beam-and-column system combined with cross-laminated timber (CLT) floors. To provide additional rigidity, the stability elements have been moved to the façades.

What makes the project even more remarkable is that even the elevator core is made of wood, and for the first time, CLT made from recycled pallet wood has been used. Meint Smith, team leader and senior consultant for structural design and engineering at Arcadis, shares all the ins and outs of this exceptional project by Urban Climate Architects, which is being rolled out across the Netherlands.