Where Are the Limits of Tall Timber?

Where Are the Limits of Tall Timber?

For decades, engineered timber - most notably glulam - has proven itself as a reliable structural material for long-span applications such as sports halls, swimming pools, and industrial buildings. More recently, however, timber has made a decisive move in a new direction: upward. The combination of glulam and cross-laminated timber (CLT) has opened the door to multi-storey and high-rise construction, fundamentally challenging assumptions about what wood can achieve as a primary structural system. This talk explores the evolving boundaries of tall timber construction through a series of built examples. The discussion culminates in an examination of the Atlassian Central in Sydney - currently the world's tallest timber hybrid building - as a benchmark for what is technically and architecturally possible today.

Johanes Rebhahn

Johannes was born into a traditional sawmill family in Austria which explains the sawdust in his veins! He studied structural engineering at TU Graz and Lisbon, before joining leading Glulam provider’s WIEHAG in 2002. After a few years of purely structural timber engineering, he started to develop the international markets for WIEHAG and is currently Head of International Projects with responsibility for all jobs outside of Austria and Germany. He is helping to constantly push the boundaries of what’s possible with mass timber and his passion for timber is clearly demonstrated by his involvement in some of the most important milestone timber projects ever constructed.