Tall Timber Buildings in The Netherlands

In the last few decades, structural timber for residential buildings has lost popularity because of problems related to floor vibrations, acoustics and fire resistance. In recent years, however, solutions to these problems have been developed and timber-framed housing is becoming increasingly popular. The best-known platform method of building allows construction up to four storeys due to the anisotropy behaviour of the material. Case studies have shown that other methods of construction allow higher structures but deformations caused by wind and vibration usually set the limit. In this paper, details are given of a five-storey mixed residential and office building called the house "De Wiers" currently the highest multiple-storey timber building in the Netherlands.