Crosslam completes Brazil's tallest mass-timber tower

Engineering company Crosslam has designed and built Aurora 275, a hybrid building with mass-timber elements that the company claims is the tallest of its type in Brazil.

Standing 22 metres tall, Aurora 275 is considered a hybrid-timber building, with a structural system consisting of a reinforced concrete core, metal, and mass-timber elements including glued-laminated timber (glulam) beams and columns.

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Located in the Suzano area of São Paulo, according to Crosslam, it is the tallest building of its type in Brazil.

Crosslam, which usually acts as an engineer for other firms, designed the building itself to demonstrate the potential of mass timber in Brazil.

“We believed that, to sell the first timber building, we first had to build our own,” said Crosslam founder José Alberto Corrêa. “Otherwise, the Brazilian market wouldn’t trust that it was possible.”

To further demonstrate the method’s viability, the building was constructed in four weeks by a five-person team, according to Crosslam. The timber was produced in the company’s factory using wood sourced from Brazil.

Aurora 275 sits next to smaller residential buildings. It features a metal-clad facade, with yellow detailing running up its face.

It extends in two directions from a concrete core, with balconies for each of the 10 apartments.

On the outside, the timber elements are only visible on the undersides of the balconies.

However, on the inside, the timber elements are more visible, with the cross-laminated timber floorplates and glulam beams exposed, giving the interiors a warm feel.

Crosslam said that the structure shows the potential for timber buildings for industrial-style housing production in the country.

“Using engineered timber offers benefits related to the industrialisation of construction, the efficiency of the assembly process, and building performance,” said the project teaam.

“The main advantages include: faster assembly, dimensional precision, reduced waste on the construction site, a lighter structure, and lower carbon emissions.”

The company claimed that the building is carbon neutral.

Timber construction for tall buildings is gaining popularity across the world, with inroads into construction in North America and Europe. The current tallest timber structure in the world recently topped out in Australia.