Archibiotect Vincent Callebaut designed a mixed-use residential building in Cebu City, Philippines, inspired from the local Rainbow Eucalyptus. At a time when radical solutions are needed to reduce the global carbon footprint, the architect designed a 32-story, 115-meter high tower built of solid wood, as it is the only natural, abundant, and renewable material integrating the principles of passive bioclimatism and advanced renewable energies.
![rainbow tree up close](https://constructionpwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/rainbow-tree-closeup.jpg)
The Rainbow Tree tower is a 1,200-module staggered geometric stack with sides of 4 meters and a height up to 4.8 meters. All of these mass prefabricated timber modules are constructed with extreme accuracy at a factory. The material used for these modules is CLT (Cross Laminated Timber), the very same material used in Mactan Cebu International Airport and Clark International Airport New Terminal.
![](https://constructionpwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/clt-sample.jpg)
Cross-laminated wood originally introduced in Europe around 1990s, then spread to the United States and other parts of the world. The material has shown to be effective in a variety of building types, from low-rise to high-rise. In comparison to concrete and steel, it has also demonstrated competence in terms of strength, speed, and affordability. However, the CLT’s major selling point is that it is a sustainable building material, which offers it a distinct advantage over conventional solid building materials.
Although CLT is a type of engineered wood, there are several advantages of cross-laminated timber over other engineered wood-based products. CLT has even outperformed concrete and steel, the world’s top two construction materials. Here are a few of the benefits:
- Its panels are made up of cross-grain layers, making them less prone to deformation when exposed to moisture.
- CLT walls, floors, and roofs may be prefabricated off-site and then constructed on-site, saving time and money.
- Custom-shaped CLT panels, such as those for window or door apertures, may be made with CNC machines.
- Pre-fabrication of CLT panels also has the benefit of speeding up the construction process. Building an 18-story structure might take as little as 9 weeks.
- CLT may be molded into a variety of shapes including curved forms. If the thickness to length ratio is low, they can be bent during the manufacturing process or pushed on site.
- The amount of energy required to make CLT is half that of concrete and less than 1% of that for steel.
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