I plan on writing about this in more depth, the way that the more conservative, technocratic wing of lowered embodied carbon architecture is not prized for its aesthetic innovation and/or political critique but rather its ability to fit into existing styles and standards of construction. Mass Timber is the case in point par excellence. Architects revel in straight substitutions like this for the way it preserves the high rise form; one notable modeling exercise involved redoing the empire state building in mass timber. See also SOM’s (grifty, spurious) design of “urban sequoias” where the high rise is not only ‘made’ of trees but supposedly functions as one.

https://twitter.com/SustainableTall/status/1773979818314625040

New architecture style just dropped … mass timber brutalism

By Charlap, Hyman & Herrero, Montana pic.twitter.com/iwX4YXvUC0

— Philip Oldfield (@SustainableTall) March 30, 2024