Are timber skyscrapers the future?

We are gonna start off by talking about a skyscraper in Sydney that has just become the world's tallest wooden building.

We'll be discussing whether timber high-rises could become an important fixture in our cities or whether it's simply an architectural gimmick.

After that, we'll be hearing a "Here's One We Made Earlier" conversation between me and Jen, our design editor, who is not here this week, about a super dexterous robotic hand developed by 1X.

The company claims it represents a major step towards making the prospect of humanoid robots doing household chores in our homes a reality.

And finally, we'll return to hear about Tom's new tattoo, which is a world first, so stay tuned for that one.

But all right, time for our first story and the Atlassian central skyscraper, which has topped out in Sydney, Australia, and in doing so, absolutely smashed the world record for the tallest timber building, Tom.

Yeah, by over 100 meters.

So the previous holder of that title was 86 meters high in Milwaukee, and this building is over 186 meters tall.

So yeah, totally smashed it.

Will be the tallest timber building by some stretch, so kind of a big moment in this kind of, um, progression in timber skyscrapers or plowscrapers, as some people call them.

Mm.

[chuckles]

So it's an office tower for the software company Atlassian.

It's designed by SHoP Architects, a New York-based studio, and BVN Architecture, which is an Australian architecture studio.

Quite an interesting combo.

They're both kind of quite interesting architecture firms in their own right, those two.

The principal of BVN, Peter Titmuss, said, "As a prototype for mass timber towers of the future, this is a moment of global significance," tying in with your assessment just there, Tom.

Before we go any further, we should probably just explain what mass timber is, I guess.

So Tom, w- would you do the honors on that?

Uh, yeah, of course.

So timber, let's start there.

Uh, timber is obviously trees cut down, and then you cut them into planks, et cetera.

We use them for building materials, and that has been going on for thousands of years, one of our oldest structural building materials.

And then mass timber is effectively an engineered version of this.

In the 1980s, some Austrian engineers figured out a way to make timber effectively stronger and more reliable.

We are gonna start off by talking about a skyscraper in Sydney that has just become the world's tallest wooden building.

We'll be discussing whether timber high-rises could become an important fixture in our cities or whether it's simply an architectural gimmick.

After that, we'll be hearing a "Here's One We Made Earlier" conversation between me and Jen, our design editor, who is not here this week, about a super dexterous robotic hand developed by 1X.

The company claims it represents a major step towards making the prospect of humanoid robots doing household chores in our homes a reality.

And finally, we'll return to hear about Tom's new tattoo, which is a world first, so stay tuned for that one.

But all right, time for our first story and the Atlassian central skyscraper, which has topped out in Sydney, Australia, and in doing so, absolutely smashed the world record for the tallest timber building, Tom.

Yeah, by over 100 meters.

So the previous holder of that title was 86 meters high in Milwaukee, and this building is over 186 meters tall.

So yeah, totally smashed it.

Will be the tallest timber building by some stretch, so kind of a big moment in this kind of, um, progression in timber skyscrapers or plowscrapers, as some people call them.

Mm.

[chuckles]

So it's an office tower for the software company Atlassian.

It's designed by SHoP Architects, a New York-based studio, and BVN Architecture, which is an Australian architecture studio.

Quite an interesting combo.

They're both kind of quite interesting architecture firms in their own right, those two.

The principal of BVN, Peter Titmuss, said, "As a prototype for mass timber towers of the future, this is a moment of global significance," tying in with your assessment just there, Tom.

Before we go any further, we should probably just explain what mass timber is, I guess.

So Tom, w- would you do the honors on that?

Uh, yeah, of course.

So timber, let's start there.

Uh, timber is obviously trees cut down, and then you cut them into planks, et cetera.

We use them for building materials, and that has been going on for thousands of years, one of our oldest structural building materials.

And then mass timber is effectively an engineered version of this.

In the 1980s, some Austrian engineers figured out a way to make timber effectively stronger and more reliable.