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How to build a wood skyscraper

Mass timber has gone from novelty to trend. But how does it change the construction process?

Phil Edwards
Phil Edwards was a senior producer for the Vox video team.

Is there a way to replace steel and concrete with wood? That’s the idea behind mass timber, a relatively new construction technique that’s making its way from Europe to the United States.

In the above video, you can learn how mass timber changes the construction process. Vox’s Phil Edwards visited Ascent Milwaukee, the tallest mass timber building in the world at 25-stories tall, to see how it all comes together. Many different partners have to reinvent the construction process to make a building like this a reality, from design teams to engineers all the way down to the screwdrivers on site.

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