Sustainability has taken center stage in the broad world of architecture and design, inspiring and directing the construction of new structures towards environmental harmony. The use of wood, a classic material with enormous potential to lessen our ecological impact while providing limitless design possibilities, is a notable example of this movement's implementation. In the fight for sustainability in the field of architecture, wood has become an ally. Its distinctive qualities, such as renewability and carbon neutrality, have inspired creative methods among architects worldwide.
A wide range of architectural projects, from vital healthcare facilities to exciting mixed-use buildings, cultural hubs, and welcoming residential spaces, benefit from wood's extraordinary versatility as a building material. In fact, wood's natural warmth and biophilic qualities can create spaces that reduce stress and promote well-being. Furthermore, the carbon-neutral nature of wood aligns perfectly with the design industry's commitment to environmental responsibility.
Read on to discover 9 projects designed with wood submitted by the ArchDaily community, along with descriptions from the architects.
La Source Vive / Neuvecelle, France
PCA-STREAM
La Source Vive is a new concert hall dedicated to chamber music located in Évian. The result of a collaboration between architects Patrick Bouchain and Philippe Chiambaretta. Its conch-like form is the outcome of sensory experimentation and scientific analysis aimed at achieving exceptional acoustics while blending seamlessly into its scenic surroundings.
Hospital Pljevlja / Pljevlja, Montenegro
Isturaín+Sam
The Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism of Montenegro announced an International Competition for the conceptual design of the building of the general hospital in Pljevlja. The cone-shaped terrain is adjacent to a mountainous area with a considerable amount of trees that must be preserved. Instead of designing a massive building made up of 4 facades, we opted to divide the building into 5 elements, thus creating 12 facades. This allows us to preserve 95% of the existing trees.
Lar De Idosos - AGORA / Portugal
Muzaffer Korcan Özbek Architecture and Restoration Office
Agora is an elderly people's house project that creates a neighborhood texture that evokes Mediterranean city architecture. Residents can enter their homes directly from the square and host guests from outside, just like in their old lives. Local architecture is imitated with functions and spatial scenarios rather than postmodern approaches that imitate its formal language. In this way, it was aimed to accommodate elderly people not only from the Portuguese environment but also with an international identity.
Dynamic Equilibrium City / Tallinn, Estonia
TAKENAKA CORPORATION
To realize a sustainable city, we propose an urban system that can be circulated with local resources by combining three scales of circulation: City, Suburban Forest, and Urban building resources. While reconstructing the network of various actors in the city, the materials that exist in the city will be incorporated into the circulation. The architecture itself will continue to transform and respond to the challenges of the time through repeated decomposition, movement, and combination.
First Responders Resiliency Center / California, US
Studio BANAA
Located on a 17.75-acre rural property in Cotati, California, the Resiliency Center will be the first of its kind to create a permanent local hub for a community of first responders and become a prototype for others throughout the nation. The new 20,000 SF center will hold a variety of functions ranging from therapy rooms, classrooms for art, meditation, and yoga, a wellness center, and a 100-person lecture hall.
Musara Kasimaeru / Indonesia
Oxo arc
Proposal for the new office complex on Mentawai. A design for an office building in Mentawai Province that stands out amidst the rainforest, but also in harmony with the forest vegetation and island landscape. The 25,000-square-foot, light-filled, environmentally friendly office building promotes a spirit of co-development and collaboration. Its layout addresses the need for flexible, continuous, and safe work environments for the future. It also references Mentawai's rich natural and cultural heritage and revitalizes the area by contributing positively to the site and its surroundings. The project aims to create an environmentally friendly building. It has a lower carbon footprint but is compact and is also designed to provide a preparation room for evacuation in the event of a tsunami.
Modular Children's Leisure Center
Design Office 500.K+
Children's Leisure Center is an institution of additional education for children. It is the facility where physical, mental, aesthetic, and labor education and development of children are carried out. The main goal of the project is to ensure such engagement for children. The basis for the building is a hexagon module, that gives dynamism to the internal and external spaces, softening the monumentality of the traditional quadrangular forms.
The Drifting Habitat / Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela
Daniel Abraham, Hana Čičević
The Drifting Habitat is a highly compact, sustainable, and mobile house for a working couple traveling across Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. It is designed to maximize a compact space of only 298 sf, with several adjustable and movable elements. The diagrams explain the use of a mezzanine level for work, fitness, and/or sleeping which is allowed with the design of the bed that is embedded into the floor slab, and desk and chairs that are embedded into the wall.
Sky Under the Trees / Osaka, Japan
Mjölk architekti
The EXPO 2025 pavilion by Mjölk architekti is a welcoming wooden building conceived as a garden in the sky. It was created with ease and expresses the optimistic outlook of its authors for the future. The pavilion has been designed so that its realization puts the least possible strain on the environment during fabrication, operation, and transport to and from Osaka. The design won third place.
HOW TO SUBMIT AN UNBUILT PROJECT
We highly appreciate the input from our readers and are always happy to see more projects designed by them. If you have an Unbuilt project to submit, click here and follow the guidelines. Our curators will review your submission and get back to you in case it is selected for a feature.
This article is part of the ArchDaily Topics: The Future of Wood in Architecture presented by Tantimber ThermoWood.
Tantimber ThermoWood brings the timeless warmth of wood to modern design. Natural, renewable, and non-toxic, they transform sustainably sourced wood species into dimensionally stable and durable wood products for use in residential and commercial building and design projects. Find out more about how the enduring beauty of ThermoWood brings warmth to the built environment.
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