The first building made from hardwood crosslaminated Tulipwood opens in England

Maggie’s Oldham, the world’s first building made from hardwood crosslaminated timber (Clt), has opened in the UK. Designed by dRMMArchitects and supported by the American Hardwood Export Council, this is a pivotal moment for modern architecture and construction. Maggie’s is a charity that provides practical and emotional support to people living with cancer. Built on the grounds of specialist Nhs cancer hospitals, Maggie’s Centres are warm and welcoming places with qualified professionals on hand to offer a programme of support shown to improve physical and emotional wellbeing. dRMM chose tulipwood for the design of Maggie’s Oldham for the positive influence wood has on people and for the beauty, strength and warmth inherent to American tulipwood. Wood is known to significantly reduce blood pressure, heart rates and recovery times; it has more health and wellbeing benefits than any other building material, according to Wood Housing Humanity Report 2015. This pioneering piece of permanent architecture is constructed from more than 20 panels of five layer cross-laminated American tulipwood, ranging in size from 0.5m – 12m long. American tulipwood Clt was pioneered in 2013 by dRMM, Ahec and Arup for its unparalleled strength and lightness, speed of construction and sustainability. American tulipwood is approximately 70 percent stronger in bending than a typical Clt grade softwood. The structural Clt panels for Maggie’s Oldham were developed by Clt specialists, Züblin Timber. The first public experiment with this building material was The Endless Stair, created during the London Design Festival 2013. Arup’s engineering calculations show the structure could have supported 100 people at any one time. Tulipwood Clt is one of the most sustainable timber species because of how fast it replenishes, through natural growth alone.
Maggie’s Oldham contains 27.6m3 of American tulipwood and 1.1m3 of American ash, equivalent to around 55.22m3 and 2.1m3 respectively of sawn wood before processing, which in terms comes from around 115.7m3 of logs – and all these logs will be replaced in just 120 seconds (108 seconds for the tulipwood and 12 seconds for the ash).

ABOUT TULIPWOOD CLT AND SUSTAINABILITY
Tulipwood is the fourth most abundant timber in U.S. hardwood forests, representing 7 percent of the total growth, only exceeded by American red oak (18 percent), white oak (15 percent) and soft maple (11 percent). It grows in all 33 states that are home to U.S. hardwoods (generally on the eastern side of the country) and is most abundant in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.
And it is under-exploited. Not only is the amount of growth greater than the level of harvesting in every state, but in all of them the harvest level is less than half of the growth level. This is partly because tulipwood is a fastgrowing timber and regenerates, not only by natural reseeding, but also by re-growing from the stumps of harvested trees. In addition, and particularly useful in structural applications, it has a very high strength to weight ratio – that is, it is much stronger than one would expect for the weight. American tulipwood Clt is around three times stronger and stiffer in ‘rolling shear’ than its softwood equivalent. Like all timbers, tulipwood is a carbon store. Calculations show that, at the point at which the tulipwood reached the factory in Germany where the Clt is fabricated – after felling, sawing, drying and transport – it was still storing far more CO2 than had been generated through its processing and transport.