The World's Tallest Wooden Office Tower Just Opened in Oslo

The tower's skeleton is glue-laminated spruce and laminated veneer lumber — engineered timber that, developers are keen to demonstrate, chars predictably in fire rather than buckling like steel.

The carbon ledger is the sales pitch: the structure stores more carbon than was emitted building it, a net saving the project equates to removing 2,000 cars for a year.

Tenants report one unplanned benefit. The lobby smells of pine, and according to the building manager, "nobody can explain it, nobody wants it fixed."

“Eighteen storeys of engineered timber, a carbon saving equal to taking 2,000 cars off the road, and a lobby that smells faintly of forest.”