Forest office: The role of wood in Paris’s low-carbon building boom

New Scientist‘s Graham Lawton recently visited two construction sites in Paris that showcase the wonder material of the future: wood. Each site uses wood as an alternative to typical modern construction materials such as steel and concrete, and the potential benefits are numerous: from lower carbon emissions to improved mental health. Wooden construction, it would seem, could help restore our health and the planet’s.

At Marcadet Belvédère, a former parcel terminus for the French railway network overlooked by the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, property developer WO2 is adding five extra storeys to the existing concrete shell to create new office space. The new storeys are mostly made of cross-laminated timber (CLT), an engineered wood product that rivals concrete and steel as a structural material, but with a much lower carbon footprint.

At Arboretum, on the western fringes of Paris, is the largest wooden office project in Europe. It is a campus comprising five new low-rise offices set in parkland. The buildings are made largely of CLT, which, as at Marcadet, means the project has half the lifetime carbon emissions of a standard new build.