Urbanization certainly isn’t a bad thing: concentrating population growth in cities and suburbs helps preserve tracts of land in rural areas for agriculture, preserves recreation and wildlife, and makes access to resources like education, medical care and jobs highly efficient. Of course, there are plenty of challenges that come along with it, not the least of which is finding space within cities for all of these new residents. By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities, a growth rate that’s far outstripping the availability of affordable and sustainable places to live.
How do we adapt our cities to these needs" Instead of tearing down existing architecture ? a process that displaces current residents and often leads to a loss of character, culture and sense of history in a given city ? we could potentially build on top of it instead. According to Vancouver-based architect Michael Green, wood is the way forward. “We need to start building up, and stop tearing down,” he says. “We have an alternative. A building extension constructed with a timber frame can be a fast, sustainable and inexpensive solution.”

“Today, engineered wood offers designers an incredible opportunity to meet this challenge. New wood products allow designers to build taller structures that are much lighter than alternative materials (steel and concrete) while still meeting strict criteria for fire resistance and/or seismic chall...