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Mjøstårnet by Voll Arkitekter is the now the world's tallest timber tower

Taking the Title

Mjøstårnet by Voll Arkitekter is the now the world's tallest timber tower

Mjøstårnet is located in Brumunddal, Norway, and is now the tallest mass timber building in the world. (Courtesy Moelven)

A Nordic structure has claimed the title of world’s tallest timber building.

Mjøstårnet by Voll Arkitekter is a 280-foot-tall tower in Brumunddal, Norway, constructed entirely out of cross-laminated timber. It’s the third tallest building in the country and features 18 stories of office space, apartments, a hotel, a ground-floor restaurant, and an adjoining public bath.

Designed like a monumental wooden box planted atop Brumunddal’s open, lakeside landscape, Mjøstårnet stands as a symbol of the “green shift.” It’s all wood—even it’s elevators are built from CLT and its large-scale interior trusses, as well as the structural columns, are glulam. The architects used local-sourced materials crafted from local suppliers to build the soaring structure, which features a series of wooden fins on its western facade and an open-air rooftop with a sculptural timber topper. Scandinavian company Moelven Limtre, owner of 17 sawmills in Norway and Sweden, supplied the wood and served as the Mjøstårnet’s structural engineer.

The mixed-use project is owned by AB Invest, a Jordanian investment group, and beats out Brock Commons at the University of British Columbia by 90 feet. Though the Vancouver-based student housing project also stretches 18 stories high and is actually larger than Mjøstårnet in overall square feet, the Nordic building bests it in height. Last week, 3XN released renderings for what will soon become North America’s tallest mass timber office building, T3 Bayside. Imagined for Toronto’s burgeoning waterfront community, it’s slated to rise just 138 feet.


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