CLT in Architecture and Design: Styles, Pairings, Precedents

Move over it to light it

Finish

Light

Closer

ReadingsIn use 1990 to now

WeightIn between

WarmthWarm

CostIn between

PermanenceIn between

PrecisionIn between

CarbonModerate

Making one kilo releases about 0.42 kg of CO₂: adhesives and drying; still stores more than it emits.

It saysStructural innovationMass-timber ambitionSustainable engineering

Best for: Mid-rise housing, Sustainable commercial builds, Mass-timber towers.

01The building that proves it

Mjøstårnet

Voll Arkitekter · Brumunddal · 2019

CLT here: an 85-metre tower of cross-laminated timber and glulam.

About the building ↗

02Try it on a board

Pick up to three materials to sit beside clt. The board shows the styles that use all of them, and writes a prompt you can take to an image or video generator.

CLT Bamboo

Styles that use all of themBiophilic Design Sustainable Architecture

Setting

Scale

Light

Camera

Output

A house, on a dense urban street. Materials: clt (cross-laminated timber) that reads as structural innovation, bamboo that reads as rapid renewal. Golden hour, warm raking light. Eye level from across the street, 35mm. Architectural photograph, medium format, no people, no text.

03The styles built on it

Sustainable Architecture Neo-Modernism Contemporary Architecture Biophilic Design

04Questions

Which design styles use clt?

Sustainable Architecture, Neo-Modernism, Contemporary Architecture and Biophilic Design.

What goes well with clt?

CLT pairs well with structural glass, polished concrete and anodized aluminum.

What does clt communicate?

Structural innovation, Mass-timber ambition and Sustainable engineering. It suits mid-rise housing, sustainable commercial builds and mass-timber towers.

What is the carbon footprint of clt?

Making one kilo of clt releases about 0.42 kg of CO₂, cradle to gate: adhesives and drying; still stores more than it emits.

05More timber

Oak Teak Bamboo Cedar Reclaimed Timber Birch Plywood Pine

Every materialOpen the materials sampler →

Marble Limestone Granite Travertine Basalt Sandstone Slate Structural Steel Cor-Ten Steel Titanium Copper Wrought Iron Anodized Aluminum Chrome Bronze Zinc Cladding Cast Iron Plate Glass Glass Block Leaded Art Glass Structural Glass ETFE Membrane Electrochromic Glazing Oak Teak Bamboo Cedar CLT Reclaimed Timber Birch Plywood Pine Fired Brick Terracotta Tile Adobe Brick Ceramic Mosaic Glazed Faïence Roman Brick Polychrome Brick Rammed Earth Hempcrete Clay Plaster Living Roof Substrate Exposed Concrete Board-Formed Concrete Polished Concrete Precast Concrete Panel Glass-Fibre Reinforced Concrete Sprayed Concrete Fibreglass Shell Carbon Fibre Composite Aluminium Composite Panel Tensile Fabric Perforated Steel Screen Polycarbonate Vitrolite Porcelain Enamel Panel