Robustness of tall timber buildings

Abstract

The record for the tallest timber building in the world has broken 4 times in the last 5 years, and it is about to be broken again in 2019. Advances in GLT and CLT manufacturing and fire engineering have made timber high-rises a dream come true for many engineers and the industry is not stopping here.

A very important field of research which is well known in concrete and steel high-rises, structural robustness and disproportionate collapse prevention, is now starting to be addressed for tall timber buildings. The application of existing rules and guidelines is not straightforward because of timber’s complexity in rigid connections and the reduced weight of the towers.

Research in ETH, in collaboration with various industry partners will focus on different aspects of robustness in tall timber buildings, from reliability and numerical modelling to construction.

Support

This project is kindly supported by the "Albert Lück-Stiftung".