HoHo: Wooden skyscraper in Vienna

While Asian and Arab cities constantly compete to see who can build the world’s highest skyscraper, Vienna has its own plans for a superlative: the tallest building made of wood. The architecture studio Rüdiger Lainer and Partners has introduced its design for a high-rise 84 metres tall and consisting of 76 % wood. In Vienna’s Seestadt Aspern district, the 24-storey HoHo project will be home to a hotel, apartments, a restaurant, spa and office spaces. The height of the building significantly exceeds that of the eight-storey LifeCycle Tower (LCT One) by Hermann Kaufmann, which also stands in Austria, in the town of Dornbirn. In an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, project developer Caroline Palfy of the Kerbler real-estate company said: “We have wood, which is a perfect construction material for building. It was used 200 years ago and it was perfect then and is perfect now.” Of course, in term of carbon footprint wood is dramatically more environmentally friendly than materials such as concrete. So far, the only potential disadvantage of this project is the Fire Department’s concern about the wooden structure. Fire-safety experts are working with the architects in order to ensure that HoHo conforms to safety and fire-prevention regulations.