Sweden welcomes 75m tall timber building

Sara Cultural Centre is one of the world's tallest carbon-negative structures.

One of the world's tallest and carbon-negative timber buildings has opened in Skellefteå, Sweden.

The Sara Cultural Centre is 75m tall and homes a theatre, a gallery, a library, restaurants, a conference centre and a hotel.

The 20-storey hotel is built up of prefabricated 3D-modules in cross-laminated timber (CLT), stacked between two CLT elevator cores.

The lower rise cultural centre consists of a timber frame with columns and beams made of glue-laminated timber (GLT), with cores and shear walls in CLT. The trusses above the grand foyers are composed of a GLT and steel hybrid. The building is designed to have a lifespan of at least 100 years, the architects claim.

In a press release accompanying the announcement, Swedish architects, White Arkitekter, the architects behind the building say the project realises "a full timber structure of a complex building with mixed uses, mixed volumetry, and a high-rise of 20 storeys, Sara Cultural Centre broadens the application of timber as a structural material."