Dubbing it “the symbol of a new age,” Metsä Wood has teamed up with architect Michael Green to design a sustainable wood version of the Empire State Building, showing off the virtually limitless heights to which wood construction may reach. The Finnish wood products producer presents ‘Plan B’, a series reimagining architectural wonders of the world to show how they could be built from wood instead of their original materials.
“While many things have changed in 85 years, architects still strive to give form to new ideas about structure, energy consumption, climate change and the list goes on,” says architect Michael Green. “For these reasons the most iconic building of the modern age – the Empire State Building – was chosen for Plan B case. We designed a skyscraper using Metsä Wood’s Kerto LVL engineered wood as the main material from floors to column spacing.”
The first Plan B project reimagined the Colosseum in Rome, and the third will give the German parliament building known as the Reichstag a timber makeover.
“Wood construction is the ideal way to both battle climate change and house a growing urban population,” says Metsä Wood’s Andreas Rutschmann. “As a large part of the German Parliament’s work is about environmental legislation, it really makes sense that its home is as sustainable as possible. It was great to hear that Plan B will be presented to the parliament’s department of Energy policy.”
