Australia’s Major City Skylines Could Soon Feature 50-Story Mass Timber Skyscrapers

In an effort to decarbonize and revitalize urban construction, Australia’s skylines may soon feature timber skyscrapers up to 50-stories tall. The proposed timber skyscraper buildings are made possible by using a hybrid construction and engineered mass timber around a concrete core.

Currently, three separate plans have been submitted to construct hybrid timber buildings in the City of Perth and the City of Sydney. The Perth building would be 180 meters tall, and the Sydney building would be 220 meters tall. Either one of these buildings would be almost twice the height of the current tallest timber structure located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which is 86.6 meters in height.

Like other countries, Australia’s timber industry calls wood the “ultimate renewable,” but as some critics have pointed out, Australia is a net importer of construction timber, and there are not enough softwood plantations nationwide to fill its future needs. As for the use of native hardwoods, logging is currently being phased out in some of Australia’s largest forestry regions, including those in West Australia and Victoria.