A Sustainable Timber Skyline: The Future of Design | Ben Kaiser | TEDxPortland

The design and structural craft of building with wood in America is finally changing - for the better. Innovations in the timber industry and the rise of cross-laminated timber (CLT)* are forcing Oregonians sitting on the richest sustainable resource, the Douglas Fir, to rethink how to harvest, sustain and reshape the future.

*Cross-laminated timber is a wood panel typically consisting of three, five, or seven layers of dimension lumber oriented at right angles to one another and then glued to form structural panels with exceptional strength, dimensional stability, and rigidity.


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Ben owns both the Kaiser Group, Inc., which is committed to commercial and residential construction, and PATH Architecture, Inc., which offers the highest level of conceptual design and timeless modern works of architectural beauty. Kaiser recently concluded an 8-year term on the Portland Design Commission, which is tasked with overseeing the constant zoning, design and planning within the City of Roses. He is currently developing the tallest engineered timber building in the United States - Carbon 12.

[LonJangstone]

Awesome. I'm currently researching CLT in the UK. This talk is brilliant. I really do hope Mass timber keeps growing in popularity.

[lloydglyn]

An example of floor to ceiling used on my dads house in Auckland.

[andrewdohrmann]

the japanese temple has a sort of pendulum in the middle of it that absorbs the energy of movement ...in the core of the structure 4 things!!

[prodigy]

11:00 but how to repair the wall after the fire?

[josenoeloctaviano]

I think that i begin to see, a building lovely as a tree...

[dooseyboy]

i want to know how we went from trying to stop deforestation to wood being a sustainable material. how fast are these trees growing? i'd like to know more about what exactly makes it sustainable

[Vikamiy]

renewable renewable renewable renewable renewable

[robertonichele]

tree farm vs apex diverse forest ecosystem

[roman]

We went from building walls of logs to studs at 24” on center to now solid walls. And yet at 24” we were already running out of forest. Moreover, CLT is much faster to erect meaning trees are being cut down even faster. These CLT presentations never show the clear cutting of old growth forest in aerial view, and if they do, it’s as a cartoon or graphic illustration. They never want to show the forest footprint of CLT. Until they do, I call BS. Funny how they claim sustainability not by the motto less is more but more is better when already we know green space is shrinking.

[pistonhung]

come to remote areas in Asian countries, Vietnam, China, Japan..., you can learn a lot about sustainable construction from older generation. Come as soon as possible before it's destroyed by younger generation and replaced with Western "modern" styled buildings

[timkirkpatrick]

convenient to ignore the pressure to monoculture the forests from your CLT.

[mountainbikerdave]

you forgot about termites and wood rot.
12:30 wood is a horrible insulator.
Steel, concrete, and brick are worse, but why even mention it if you still have to insulate it anyways?
also, it depends on the type of concrete you use.
they make aerated concrete and EPS impregnated concrete.
also you never mentioned water damage, wood can warp if it gets wet.
also, what about vapor control and mold? organic material can harvest bacterial growth.

you should make a more in dept video for people in the industry doing an objective pro/con of CLT to other materials.

[angelpedersen]

The awful leaf optimally divide because staircase canonically skip pace a imaginary man. dusty, motionless burglar

[filmore]

Concrete is simpler, more durable, and cheaper at least in the long run.