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Elements and Materials

Cross-Laminated Timber

Also Known As CLT
Material

An engineered wood panel built from layers of solid-sawn lumber glued at right angles to the adjacent layer, giving it strength and dimensional stability in two directions comparable to concrete or steel. Developed in Austria through the 1990s, it is central to the contemporary mass-timber building movement, enabling mid-rise and increasingly high-rise timber construction. The nine-story, 30-metre Stadthaus in Hackney, London, completed in 2009, was the first building framed entirely in the material, including its stairs and lift shaft, and the 25-story, 86.6-metre Ascent MKE tower in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, completed in 2022, became the tallest high-rise to date relying on mass timber components. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Element Kind
Material 2
First Used Era
A patent resembling cross-laminated timber was developed in the 1920s by Frank J. Walsh and Robert L. Watts in Tacoma, Washington, though many sources instead date the first CLT patent to 1985 in France; the modern product was developed in Austria through the 1990s and approved for commercial use in 1998. 1
Era
Era (category)
Modern (19th-20th c.) 1
Connections

Associated With

Source Wikipedia
Additional Source Cross-Laminated Timber (Wikipedia)

Open Questions

In the Other Atlases

Era Of Origin

Also in History Atlas: the era this subject comes from.

Also in History Atlas: the era this subject comes from.

Sources
1. Cross-Laminated Timber (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Wikipedia: Cross-laminated timber, History section
    The first patent resembling CLT was first developed in the 1920s by Frank J. Walsh and Robert L. Watts in Tacoma, Washington. Many sources however, date the first patent back to 1985 when it was patented in France.
  • Wikipedia: Cross-laminated timber, Plyscrapers section, Stadthaus
    Stadthaus, a residential building in Hackney, London, built in 2009, was the first building constructed using only CLT framing, including for the stairs and elevator shaft. At 9 stories and 30 metres (98 ft) tall, at the time of construction, it was the tallest CLT building in the world.
  • Wikipedia: Cross-laminated timber, Plyscrapers section, Ascent MKE
    In 2022, the Ascent MKE building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, became the tallest high-rise to utilize CLT components. Reaching 25 stories and 86.6 metres (284 ft), the Ascent relies on concrete, steel, and mass timber components.
  • English Wikipedia, Cross-laminated timber, lead section, first sentence
    Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a subcategory of engineered wood panel product made from gluing together at least three layers of solid-sawn lumber at angles to each other.
  • Open Questions: Was cross-laminated timber first patented in the 1920s in Tacoma, Washington, or in 1985 in France?, History section
  • In Category: Elements and Materials
  • Associated With: Sustainable Architecture
View the Source
2. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationWikipedia: Cross-laminated timber, development section
Quote, Wikipedia: Cross-laminated timber, development section
in December 1998 it was approved
View the Source
Open Questions (1 open question)
Was cross-laminated timber first patented in the 1920s in Tacoma, Washington, or in 1985 in France?

A patent resembling cross-laminated timber was developed in the 1920s by Frank J. Walsh and Robert L. Watts in Tacoma, Washington, but many sources instead date the first CLT patent to 1985 in France, and the modern engineered product now used in mass-timber construction was developed independently in Austria through the 1990s.

What would resolve this A verified copy of the 1920s Walsh and Watts patent compared directly against the 1985 French patent to establish whether the earlier filing actually describes cross laminated construction in the sense the modern product uses, or a different technique that later sources conflated with it.
Cross-Laminated Timber (Wikipedia)
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