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In Prince George, BC a race is on to win the honor of designing the proposed Wood Innovation & Design Centre. One of the project’s semi-finalists is CREE, an emerging leader in tall commercial buildings made almost entirely out of wood. The company has partnered with Maple Reinders of Canada to bring their innovative timber/concrete hybrid technology to Prince George. CREE’s green building technology, called the LifeCycle Tower (LCT) system, enables architects to design stunning tall wood buildings up to 30 stories, and erect them as quickly as a story a day. Compared to reinforced concrete and steel construction, the slab and post system takes advantage of engineered timber products and requires 50% shorter construction times, and 39% fewer resources, over the life of a building. Research shows the LCT system can also substantially reduce the amount of concrete used in building construction, resulting in a lighter structure, with a smaller foundation and up to 90% lower CO2 emissions.
The CREE LifeCycle Tower is a building system which uses prefabricated components manufactured to an architect’s exact specifications. The wall facades are made from glue-laminate posts, while the floor slabs are constructed from a hybrid of glue-laminate posts and concrete. While these components are manufactured off-site, the foundation of a building is laid and the structural elevator shaft core is erected. This core, made out of either steel and concrete or wood, stiffens the building and provides a frame from which the prefab walls and floors hang. The slabs and posts are assembled by interconnecting the preset pins and holes of the components. With this skeleton structure, architects can design a wide variety of layouts and exterior skins, to create dramatic and sustainable buildings. “Often people think that a systems approach to building construction hinders architectural design, and leads to modular, boxy, uninspired buildings,” said Nabih Tahan, chief sustainable officer of CREE Buildings a North American division of CREE GmbH. “However, the CREE LCT system involves only the components of the building structure. This allows for outstanding architectural freedom on the look and feel of the building. Our LifeCycle Tower ONE and the IZM Montafon building look completely different, yet they are built from the same basic components.”
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CREE Leading a Renaissance 
CREE’s first building is its global headquarters in Dornbirn, Austria called the LCT ONE. The eight-story passive house pilot was erected in 8 days after the foundation was finished. 53 km away, is the company’s second building currently under construction. The IZM Montafon is CREE’s first commissioned project and is set to be one of the largest tall timber commercial buildings in Europe.
