Building a skyscraper? Forget about steel and concrete, says architect Michael Green, and build it out of ... wood. As he details in this intriguing talk, it's not only possible to build safe wooden structures up to 30 stories tall (and, he hopes, higher), it's necessary. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more. Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/translate Follow TED news on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tednews Like TED on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector

Comments

1. Steel and concrete don't rot.
2. Revolutionary ... wow!
3. Dont forget Bamboo! this material is growing a lot faster than wood and pretty strong too
4. 1 m³ of wood has a mass of 500-800 kg, he says that it can store 1 ton of CO2? How?
5. What about longevity, how would we make them last?
6. sounds like another job for hemp
7. On 3.15 you are talking about the 3% and 5% steel and concrete CO2 production, is there a source where I can find this? I'm doing research to the wooden structures in buildings and want to compare them with a steel alternative
8. I don't think cutting down more trees will be a sustainable form of design. Currently we are already falling into a crisis of deforestation. I hope people are not forgetting that trees provide us around half of our oxygen supply. This will be dramatically reduced by cutting more trees down and having no method in which to replace them at an equivalent rate. Yes, it is true that people are replanting trees, but they grow at an incredibly slow rate that is not fast enough to replenish our oxygen supply. Worrying about a house will be the last thing on someone's mind if they can't breath.
9. Question would be how do these building act in different climates, for example where in summer you have + 20 degree Celsius and in winter it is - 20. Plus all the wind, rain, snow and other environmental things. I like the thought of this, but this needs more long run technical explanation, or can these buildings withstand all the climates we have around the world and still be safe. I'm guessing they are looking into this. I would be interested to know more.
10. we should build buildings out of cardboard cus why not
11. To be honest, I've hugged a concrete column
12. bang on!
13. Excellent lesson!
    Thanks a lot!
14. this kinda breaks any limits of stupidity along with any "omg how true" comments, if you love trees and nature then just leave it growing as it is and not exploiting it as a building material, with that logic you should wear fur and leather and say you love animals and want to be close to nature. Same people are crying about how to save a tree by re-using a paper towel or crap like that.
15. wow really good ted talk...can not wait to see these buildings challenging the current building codes. He clearly has done a lot of R&D into the topic and i find it very impressive.
16. If a low-rise building goes up in flames, the biggest priority is
    getting the occupants out in time, and the second is protecting
    neighboring structures, which isn't hard if they have fire-resistant
    claddings, windows, doors and roofs, as well as no vents that could
    admit embers to unprotected spaces. But a sky scraper going up in
    flames, especially one made out of solid wood, is a massive store of
    fuel; it has the potential to melt everything around it, including the
    protective layers on neighboring buildings, exposing the wood and
    continuing the destruction. Wood can be a fine building material, but I
    predict that the first "plyscraper" fire will kill the concept all
    together.
17. Yeah and then after 20years the whole thing has rotted and needs rebuilding
18. Like everyone else, I was (and am) concerned about fire - as soon as "wooden building" is mentioned, that thought is right there in your head. But he addressed that.
    
    What wasn't addressed is something most Australians are intimately familiar with: TERMITES! OK, so those are not unique to us - the UK has woodworm that also ruins timber structures - but most countries don't have 7' high termite mounds. There's a really good reason a lot of Aus homes are now built with steel frames. You can treat timber with toxic chemicals to stop them, of course, but then you have a toxic building, you've created a big problem with disposing of the material when you pull it down, and the previously-mentioned fire problem has just become a toxic chemical spill.
19. let us build big wooden walls
20. good talk, but he should have emphasized more on the sustainability issue of our forests and how to regenrate faster than we're consuming. Would've been nice if he illustrated a wood sky scraper that incorporates nature within it e.g a man made green house as part of the building.