This is my grandfather. And this is my son. My grandfather taught me to work with wood when I was a little boy, and he also taught me the idea that if you cut down a tree to turn it into something, honor that tree's life and make it as beautiful as you possibly can. My little boy reminded me that for all the technology and all the toys in the world, sometimes just a small block of wood, if you stack it up tall, actually is an incredibly inspiring thing. These are my buildings. I build all around the world out of our office in Vancouver and New York. And we build buildings of different sizes and styles and different materials, depending on where we are. But wood is the material that I love the most, and I'm going to tell you the story about wood. And part of the reason I love it is that every time people go into my buildings that are wood, I notice they react completely differently. I've never seen anybody walk into one of my buildings and hug a steel or a concrete column, but I've actually seen that happen in a wood building. I've actually seen how people touch the wood, and I think there's a reason for it. Just like snowflakes, no two pieces of wood can ever be the same anywhere on Earth. That's a wonderful thing. I like to think that wood gives Mother Nature fingerprints in our buildings. It's Mother Nature's fingerprints that make our buildings connect us to nature in the built environment. Now, I live in Vancouver, near a forest that grows to 33 stories tall. Down the coast here in California, the redwood forest grows to 40 stories tall. But the buildings that we think about in wood are only four stories tall in most places on Earth. Even building codes actually limit the ability for us to build much taller than four stories in many places, and that's true here in the United States. Now there are exceptions, but there needs to be some exceptions, and things are going to change, I'm hoping. And the reason I think that way is that today half of us live in cities, and that number is going to grow to 75 percent. Cities and density mean that our buildings are going to continue to be big, and I think there's a role for wood to play in cities. And I feel that way because three billion people in the world today, over the next 20 years, will need a new home. That's 40 percent of the world that are going to need a new building built for them in the next 20 years. Now, one in three people living in cities today actually live in a slum. That's one billion people in the world live in slums. A hundred million people in the world are homeless. The scale of the challenge for architects and for society to deal with in building is to find a solution to house these people. But the challenge is, as we move to cities, cities are built in these two materials, steel and concrete, and they're great materials. They're the materials of the last century. But they're also materials with very high energy and very high greenhouse gas emissions in their process. Steel represents about three percent of man's greenhouse gas emissions, and concrete is over five percent. So if you think about that, eight percent of our contribution to greenhouse gases today comes from those two materials alone. We don't think about it a lot, and unfortunately, we actually don't even think about buildings, I think, as much as we should. This is a U.S. statistic about the impact of greenhouse gases. Almost half of our greenhouse gases are related to the building industry, and if we look at energy, it's the same story. You'll notice that transportation's sort of second down that list, but that's the conversation we mostly hear about. And although a lot of that is about energy, it's also so much about carbon. The problem I see is that, ultimately, the clash of how we solve that problem of serving those three billion people that need a home, and climate change, are a head-on collision about to happen, or already happening. That challenge means that we have to start thinking in new ways, and I think wood is going to be part of that solution, and I'm going to tell you the story of why. As an architect, wood is the only material, big material, that I can build with that's already grown by the power of the sun. When a tree grows in the forest and gives off oxygen and soaks up carbon dioxide, and it dies and it falls to the forest floor, it gives that carbon dioxide back to the atmosphere or into the ground. If it burns in a forest fire, it's going to give that carbon back to the atmosphere as well. But if you take that wood and you put it into a building or into a piece of furniture or into that wooden toy, it actually has an amazing capacity to store the carbon and provide us with a sequestration. One cubic meter of wood will store one tonne of carbon dioxide. Now our two solutions to climate are obviously to reduce our emissions and find storage. Wood is the only major material building material I can build with that actually does both those two things. So I believe that we have an ethic that the Earth grows our food, and we need to move to an ethic in this century that the Earth should grow our homes. Now, how are we going to do that when we're urbanizing at this rate and we think about wood buildings only at four stories? We need to reduce the concrete and steel and we need to grow bigger, and what we've been working on is 30-story tall buildings made of wood. We've been engineering them with an engineer named Eric Karsh who works with me on it, and we've been doing this new work because there are new wood products out there for us to use, and we call them mass timber panels. These are panels made with young trees, small growth trees, small pieces of wood glued together to make panels that are enormous: eight feet wide, 64 feet long, and of various thicknesses. The way I describe this best, I've found, is to say that we're all used to two-by-four construction when we think about wood. That's what people jump to as a conclusion. Two-by-four construction is sort of like the little eight-dot bricks of Lego that we all played with as kids, and you can make all kinds of cool things out of Lego at that size, and out of two-by-fours. But do remember when you were a kid, and you kind of sifted through the pile in your basement, and you found that big 24-dot brick of Lego, and you were kind of like, "Cool, this is awesome. I can build something really big, and this is going to be great." That's the change. Mass timber panels are those 24-dot bricks. They're changing the scale of what we can do, and what we've developed is something we call FFTT, which is a Creative Commons solution to building a very flexible system of building with these large panels where we tilt up six stories at a time if we want to. This animation shows you how the building goes together in a very simple way, but these buildings are available for architects and engineers now to build on for different cultures in the world, different architectural styles and characters. In order for us to build safely, we've engineered these buildings, actually, to work in a Vancouver context, where we're a high seismic zone, even at 30 stories tall. Now obviously, every time I bring this up, people even, you know, here at the conference, say, "Are you serious? Thirty stories? How's that going to happen?" And there's a lot of really good questions that are asked and important questions that we spent quite a long time working on the answers to as we put together our report and the peer reviewed report. I'm just going to focus on a few of them, and let's start with fire, because I think fire is probably the first one that you're all thinking about right now. Fair enough. And the way I describe it is this. If I asked you to take a match and light it and hold up a log and try to get that log to go on fire, it doesn't happen, right? We all know that. But to build a fire, you kind of start with small pieces of wood and you work your way up, and eventually you can add the log to the fire, and when you do add the log to the fire, of course, it burns, but it burns slowly. Well, mass timber panels, these new products that we're using, are much like the log. It's hard to start them on fire, and when they do, they actually burn extraordinarily predictably, and we can use fire science in order to predict and make these buildings as safe as concrete and as safe as steel. The next big issue, deforestation. Eighteen percent of our contribution to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide is the result of deforestation. The last thing we want to do is cut down trees. Or, the last thing we want to do is cut down the wrong trees. There are models for sustainable forestry that allow us to cut trees properly, and those are the only trees appropriate to use for these kinds of systems. Now I actually think that these ideas will change the economics of deforestation. In countries with deforestation issues, we need to find a way to provide better value for the forest and actually encourage people to make money through very fast growth cycles -- 10-, 12-, 15-year-old trees that make these products and allow us to build at this scale. We've calculated a 20-story building: We'll grow enough wood in North America every 13 minutes. That's how much it takes. The carbon story here is a really good one. If we built a 20-story building out of cement and concrete, the process would result in the manufacturing of that cement and 1,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide. If we did it in wood, in this solution, we'd sequester about 3,100 tonnes, for a net difference of 4,300 tonnes. That's the equivalent of about 900 cars removed from the road in one year. Think back to that three billion people that need a new home, and maybe this is a contributor to reducing. We're at the beginning of a revolution, I hope, in the way we build, because this is the first new way to build a skyscraper in probably 100 years or more. But the challenge is changing society's perception of possibility, and it's a huge challenge. The engineering is, truthfully, the easy part of this. And the way I describe it is this. The first skyscraper, technically -- and the definition of a skyscraper is 10 stories tall, believe it or not — but the first skyscraper was this one in Chicago, and people were terrified to walk underneath this building. But only four years after it was built, Gustave Eiffel was building the Eiffel Tower, and as he built the Eiffel Tower, he changed the skylines of the cities of the world, changed and created a competition between places like New York City and Chicago, where developers started building bigger and bigger buildings and pushing the envelope up higher and higher with better and better engineering. We built this model in New York, actually, as a theoretical model on the campus of a technical university soon to come, and the reason we picked this site to just show you what these buildings may look like, because the exterior can change. It's really just the structure that we're talking about. The reason we picked it is because this is a technical university, and I believe that wood is the most technologically advanced material I can build with. It just happens to be that Mother Nature holds the patent, and we don't really feel comfortable with it. But that's the way it should be, nature's fingerprints in the built environment. I'm looking for this opportunity to create an Eiffel Tower moment, we call it. Buildings are starting to go up around the world. There's a building in London that's nine stories, a new building that just finished in Australia that I believe is 10 or 11. We're starting to push the height up of these wood buildings, and we're hoping, and I'm hoping, that my hometown of Vancouver actually potentially announces the world's tallest at around 20 stories in the not-so-distant future. That Eiffel Tower moment will break the ceiling, these arbitrary ceilings of height, and allow wood buildings to join the competition. And I believe the race is ultimately on. Thank you. (Applause)
這是我的祖父, 這是我的兒子。 當我還是個小男孩時, 我的祖父教我用木頭, 他也教我一個觀念, 那就是如果你要砍下一棵樹, 把它轉變成某種東西, 那麼你要榮耀這棵樹的一生, 盡你所能地彰顯它的美。 我的兒子讓我知道, 世界上所有的科技和玩具, 有時候只是一小堆木頭, 如果你把它們疊高, 就會變成一件非常鼓舞人心的作品。 這些是我設計的建築。 我的建築遍佈全世界, 在我位於溫哥華與紐約 辦公室之外的地方。 我的建築有不同的大小、樣式 和材料,取決於我們所在的地方。 但是木頭是我最喜愛的材料, 讓我告訴你關於木頭的故事。 我喜愛木頭的其中一個原因是 每當有人走進我建造的木造建築時, 我發現他們的反應完全不同。 我沒看過有人走進我的任何一棟建築裡, 擁抱鋼或是混凝土製的柱子, 但是這樣的事卻會發生在木造建築中。 我親眼見到人們是如何碰觸木頭, 我想他們這麼做是有原因的。 就像雪花一樣,世界上任何地方 都不可能有兩塊完全相同的木頭。 那是多麼美妙的事啊。 我喜歡這樣想,木頭在我們的建築裡 留下大自然指紋。 它是大自然的指紋, 讓我們身在建築環境裡時, 能夠透過建築與自然連結。 現在,我住在溫哥華,靠近一座森林, 裡頭的樹長了三十三層樓高。 在加州下方一點的海岸線,紅木森林 有四十層樓高。 但是我們想得到目前在世界上 大部分地區的木頭建築 通常都只有四層樓高。 即使在許多地方的建築法規 對建物的高度限制遠高於四層樓, 在美國也是如此。 現在有許多例外, 但是我們需要有更多的例外, 我希望未來能改變。 我會這樣想是因為 現在我們有一半以上的人口住在城市裡, 而且之後比例將會成長至百分之七十五。 城市和密度意謂著我們的建築 會持續的擴大, 我想城市裡有個角色適合木頭來扮演。 我會有這樣的想法是因為 現在世界上有三十億人再過二十年 就會需要一個新的家。 世界上有百分之四十的人在二十年後 會需要一個新的建築。 現在,有三分之一的人住在城市 其實是住在貧民窟裡。 那可是有十億的人口住在貧民窟裡。 世界上有一億人無家可歸。 對建築師和社會來說, 要處理在建築上面臨的困難, 就是去找出一個好方法, 讓這些人有房子住。 但是這個挑戰是,當我們搬到城市裡時, 城市是用這兩種材質建築而成, 鋼筋和水泥,那是很好的材料。 但那是上個世紀的材料。 而且在它們的製作過程中, 也需要消耗很大量的能源, 排放大量的溫室氣體。 鋼鐵大約佔了人類 百分之三的溫室氣體排放量, 水泥則超過百分之五。 你仔細想想, 現在有百分之八的碳排放量, 是由這兩種物質所產生的。 不幸的是,我們沒有深思熟慮。 我們真的沒有花太多心思在建築上, 我認為我們應該更重視它才對。 這是一份美國針對溫室氣體的統計數據, 將近半數的溫室氣體和建築業有關, 能源消耗方面也同樣如此。 你會發現,交通運輸排在 這份名單的倒數第二位, 但那卻是我們最常聽到的問題根源。 雖然大部份與能源有關, 同樣地也和碳也很大的關係。 最終我們都將面臨一個問題, 那就是我們要如何解決 三十億人的居住問題, 和氣候變遷之間的衝突, 這個問題近在咫尺,也許早已出現了。 挑戰,意謂著我們必須 開始用新的方式思考, 而我認為木頭能成為一種解決方式。 讓我來告訴你為什麼。 身為一個建築師,木頭是唯一一種能讓我使用 身為一個建築師,木頭是唯一一種能讓我使用 並藉助太陽的力量成長的材料。 當森林裡的樹木釋放氧氣, 並且吸收二氧化碳時, 當它的生命到了盡頭,會落在森林地上, 讓二氧化碳回到大氣中, 或是進入到土地裡。 如果有了森林大火, 它也會讓碳回到大氣。 但是如果你把木頭放在一棟建築、 一件傢俱或一個木製玩具中, 它就會具有神奇的能力 來儲存碳,讓我們與碳隔離。 一立方公尺的木頭能夠儲存 一噸的二氧化碳。 現在我們在氣候上的兩個解決方法, 顯然是降低排放量並找到儲存處。 木頭是唯一一種我所運用的建材中, 能夠同時做到這兩件事的建材。 因此我認為我們的慣例是 地球提供我們食物, 我們必須在這個世紀讓這個慣例改變為 讓地球建造我們家園。 如果我們認為木造建築只能蓋四層樓, 在這樣高度都市化的現代, 我們該怎麼辦? 我們需要減少使用混凝土和鋼筋, 而且我們應該要 種植更高大的樹木, 目前我們已經設計了三十層樓高的木造建築。 我和一位名叫艾瑞克·卡許 (Eric Karsh) 的工程師合作, 他幫助我們做建築的工程, 我們進行這項工作已經有一陣子了, 因為有一種新的木頭產品供我們使用, 我們稱它為巨型木材合板。 這些合板是由較年輕、 成長期較短的樹木做成, 小片木頭黏在一起, 組成很大的合板: 八呎寬、六十四呎長,有各種不同的厚度。 我發現我形容這個東西最好的方式就是 當我們想到木頭的時候, 我們都會用二乘四的建築法。 這是人們言之過早的結論。 二乘四構造有點像是 我們小時候都會玩的那種小小的、 有八個點的樂高積木, 你可以用樂高做成任何大小的酷炫成品, 用二乘四的構造。 但是要記得,當你還小的時候 你可能翻遍了地下室, 然後發現有更大的二十四個點的樂高玩具, 你覺得還不賴, 「酷耶,這超讚。 我可以做一個更大的東西, 一定超厲害的。」 這成了改變的契機。 巨型木材合板就是那個有二十四個點的積木。 它改變了我們可以創造的規模, 我們研發了一種叫 FFTT 的東西, 是一種共享創意的方法, 我們用它來建造彈性很大的建築系統, 我們可以隨心所欲,用這個巨型合板 一口氣建造出六層樓高的建築。 這個動畫顯示出這些建築 如何用很簡單的方式組合。 這些建築方式現在也已開放給 建築師和工程師來建造 房屋給世界上不同的文化社群, 不同的建築風格和樣貌。 為了安全地建造, 我們其實已經在高地震帶的溫哥華 我們其實已經在高地震帶的溫哥華 我們其實已經在高地震帶的溫哥華 設計三十層樓高的建築。 顯然,每次我把這個提出來, 即使是在這個大會裡的人都會說: 「你是認真的嗎?三十層樓? 這怎麼可能成真?」 我們被問到許多很好也很重要的問題, 因此我們花了很長的時間 來處理這些問題,然後放在報告裡, 然後讓議會審閱報告。 我先談其中的幾個部分, 首先是關於火災, 我想每個人最先想到的 都會是火災的問題。 這很正常。 讓我以此來說明。 如果我請你點燃一根火柴, 然後請你試著讓木頭著火, 這很難辦到吧? 這個道理我們都知道。 要起火你必須要從 小片的木頭開始點燃, 最後你就可以把木頭加進火裡, 加了木頭後, 當然就會開始燒,但是會燒得很慢。 嗯,這些我們用的巨型木材合板 就很像木頭。 很難點燃,而且當它著火後, 其實很容易預料它會怎麼燒。 我們可以運用消防學來預測, 讓這些建築就像混凝土 和鋼筋做的一樣安全。 另一個較大的問題是森林砍伐。 全世界所排放的溫室氣體中 有百分之十八 是由於森林砍伐。 砍樹是我們最不想做的事, 應該說,我們最不想做的是砍錯了樹。 的確有一些可持續砍伐林地, 讓我們可以適當地砍樹。 而那些是唯一適合 運用在這些系統中的樹材。 其實我認為這些想法 將會改變伐木業的經濟狀況。 針對有砍伐森林問題的國家, 我們要找到一個方式 幫助森林創造更大的價值, 並且實際鼓勵人們 透過快速的生長週期來賺錢—— 十、十二或十五年生的樹木 能用來製作這些產品, 而且可以讓我們建造 這樣大規模的建築物。 我們計算過一棟二十層樓高的建物: 只要每十三分鐘在北美 種植的樹木就足夠了, 只要這麼多就夠了。 在這裡碳足跡是很好的問題。 如果我們用鋼筋水泥建造 二十層樓高的建築物, 水泥的整個製造過程會產生 一千二百噸的二氧化碳。 如果我們用木頭來建造,用同樣的算式, 還能吸收三千一百噸的二氧化碳, 這可是四千三百噸的差別。 相當將九百輛汽車 從公路上移開一整年。 回頭想想那三十億人, 他們需要一個新的家, 也許這是減少碳排放量的好方式。 我希望我們建造的方式 能夠引領風潮,因為這大概是百年來 第一次用新的方式來建造摩天大樓。 然而,要挑戰的是社會對於 可能性的接受度, 這是很大的挑戰。 毫無疑問的是,工程是最簡單的一部分。 這樣說好了, 第一棟摩天大樓,技術上來說 ——摩天大樓的定義應該是 十層樓以上,你相不相信—— 這是第一棟摩天大樓,位於芝加哥, 人們當時害怕走在它的下面。 但是只在它完工的四年後, 居斯塔夫·埃菲爾 (Gustave Eiffel) 建了埃菲爾鐵塔, 當他建了埃菲爾鐵塔後, 他改變了世界城市的天際線, 他改變也創造了一個 像紐約與芝加哥這類城市之間的競賽, 在城市裡開發商開始建造更大的建築物, 挑戰越來越高的極限, 和更高技術的工程。 我們在紐約建造了這個模型,其實是 要做為一所科技大學 即將建造在校園中的模型。 我們挑選這個位址的原因是 讓你看看這些建築可能的樣子, 因為外觀是可以改變的, 我們討論的真的只是結構問題。 我們選擇這裡是因為它是科技大學, 我相信木頭在科技上是 最先進的材質,讓我能運用在建築中。 這恰好是大自然持有的專利, 我們只是不太能接受而已。 但我們卻應該 讓大自然的指紋存在於建築中。 我想找個機會 創造一個艾菲爾鐵塔時刻。 我們開始在世界各地建造房子。 有一棟九層樓的建築在倫敦, 還有一棟剛完成的新建築在澳洲, 有十或十一層樓高。 我們開始拉高這些木造建築, 我們希望,我希望, 我的家鄉溫哥華 在不久的將來 能有一棟世界最高的二十層樓左右的木造建築。 那個艾菲爾塔時刻能有所突破, 突破高度的限制, 讓木造建築參與競爭。 我想,這個比賽已經開始了。 謝謝! (掌聲)