Zero Carbon Hybrid Timber Supertall Prototype
Unlocking a future of decarbonized urban density
Mixed-Use
DIALOG’s team of architects, structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers, interior designers, and landscape architects came together to ask: how high and, how sustainable can we go with a ‘supertall’?
Our answer: 105 storeys or more.
Our prototype is designed with a series of construction types and a concrete core that allow for a variety of uses from retail and office, to residential, and public amenities and beyond. An innovative combination of materials including wood, steel and concrete will maximize the use of sustainably harvested wood by volume. The result is a zero carbon high-rise that’s designed to address increased density while reducing greenhouse gases and generating its own energy.
- Location
- Toronto, ON
- DIALOG Services
Architecture
Interior Design
Planning & Urban Design
Structural Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Landscape Architecture
Mechanical Engineering
Sustainability + Building Performance Consulting
Hybrid wood: An innovative combination of wood, steel and concrete will maximize the use of sustainably harvested wood by volume.
Decarbonized: This prototype aims to achieve zero carbon entirely within the building itself. It will be entirely off the grid by using PVs, arndistrict-energy cogen plant with a algae bioreactor.
The Team
Craig ApplegathThis is the project for our times. Together with my partners, we will make super tall a super sustainable reality.
Wind plays an out-sized role in the design of tall structures. Our prototype is shaped to gently curve out to meet the ground. This is reminiscent of the way that a tree trunk performs the same task as it meets the earth.
A stacked mix of uses and zones, imagined with office space, a hotel, residential and upper observation deck and amenities in the upper two zones.
Tall timber is a critical part of the solution to climate change. When used in combination with other materials in conjunction with PVs, a district energy cogen plant, we’ll lock up carbon and keep it out of the atmosphere for decades.
The prototype would serve as a key node of dense transit-oriented development in a largely suburban environment.
Our prototype’s form maximizes the efficient use of mass timber with rectangular HTFS. A rectangular floor plate provides greater usable and efficient floor space for a variety of uses.
