From Wood To Brick To Wood Again. Could Low Income Housing Come Full Circle?

a row of battered wooden slums
St. Thomas Street, New Orleans, during the Great Depression. photo by not credited/FDR Pres. Library is licensed as 'public domain' under Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code
St. Thomas Street, New Orleans, during the Great Depression, before public housing.

A pair of photographs reflects a depression-era pattern: tumbledown wooden slums in New Orleans, LA, pictured above, replaced by sturdy brick government-built social housing pictured below.

St. Thomas Street, New Orleans, during the Great Depression. photo by not credited/FDR Pres. Library is licensed as ‘public domain’ under Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code
St. Thomas Street social housing built under President FDR’s “New Deal.”

Today, interest in higher density housing makes high rise building inevitable in some neighbourhoods. To that end, sturdy brick construction has been joined by even sturdier concrete and steel. With rising concern about climate change however, we our becoming aware of just how ‘un-green’ concrete and steel construction can be. In fact it’s a major contributor to world carbon dioxide emissions.

So it’s something of a surprise that a new competitor to brick, steel and concrete has appeared on the market that claims to be both stronger than these classic construction methods, but ‘green’ as well.

What is it?

Wood.

New technology can make wood strong and durable enough for high rise construction. As the technology has developed, the cost of wood construction is now on par with more conventional methods, with greater potential for cost savings through modularization. All that and climate change-fighting, too.

The real eyebrow-raiser? Its proponents have declared that this form of tall building construction is safer from fire than both concrete and steel. As time passes, are wooden projects becoming more and more inevitable in the future of government-built social housing?

Read much more about the promising future of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) at CNN: Has The Wooden Skyscraper Revolution Finally Arrived?

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