Number of the month for April: 65 meters

Germany's largest wooden high-rise is being built in Hamburg's HafenCity district. The "Roots" project will use over 5,000 cubic meters of softwood, reach a height of 65 meters, and comprise 18 stories. This surpasses its ten-story predecessor, "SKAIO," in Heilbronn. The Hamburg high-rise will contain 181 residential units, 53 of which will be designated as social housing.

Are the days of concrete and steel over? For several years now, wood has been rediscovered as a building material. While the material is becoming increasingly popular in Germany, it is also becoming scarcer and more expensive – and not just since the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Even the forest damage caused by droughts in the summers before the pandemic, along with high demand from Asia, had already contributed to this trend.

It is undisputed, however, that wood as a building material is more sustainable and ecological, as it has a significantly better climate footprint than concrete and steel. This is also reflected in the demand from investors, who are increasingly focusing on sustainable and ecological real estate. As early as 2019, €11.5 million was invested in sustainable buildings, and approximately 24 percent of the capital investments made in closed-end investment funds flowed into "green buildings.".

The "Green Building" concept comprehensively considers the reciprocal relationship between people, the built environment, and the ecosystem, from project development to assembly and maintenance. The aim of this construction method is both to optimize resource consumption and to achieve a long-term improvement in quality of life through an ecological transformation in urban development.

Notes

For the sake of readability, this text uses the generic masculine form. Female and other gender identities are explicitly included where relevant to the statement.

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