New Dimensions 2011 - Rhomberg Bau

From metropolis to megacity
Rhomberg’s Life-Cycle Tower is part of our urban future
The usual rush-hour traffic jams, smog
warnings on the radio, congested inner
city streets: everyone who lives in the
centre of a major city is well acquainted
with this scenario. This is just a tiny
foretaste of the future. Today’s metropolis
is possibly only about 40 years
away from being described as a
“megacity” – so innovative ideas for
urban living space are more urgently
required than ever before.
By 2007 more than half of the world’s
population was living in cities with
more than a million inhabitants.
Scientists all over the world are predicting
that in 2050 the figure could
be three-quarters. And all the time,
our planet’s natural resources are
becoming increasingly more scarce,
energy more expensive and more in
demand. If you take a few minutes to
think about these two developments, it
becomes clear that providing the conditions
for working, living and life for
people in the megacity of the future
will become an almost insurmountable
challenge for town planners without
innovative technologies and ecological
concepts.
sUstainability is not just a
temporary fad
In view of the fact that over three-quarters
of the world’s energy consumption
takes place in cities, there is surely no
need to ask why the term sustainability
is on everyone’s lips. A move to using
the earth’s renewable resources is
not only sensible, it is important to life
– and this applies above all in architecture.
The idea of multistorey green
buildings that do not waste resources
and provide large numbers of people
with an environmentally friendly urban
living space has become more than
just a global trend. The Life-Cycle
Tower, developed under Rhomberg’s
leadership, is one of those projects
that is capable of not only keeping
up with but setting new international
standards, because its basic material
is a quick-growing natural substance:
wood.
An idea to shape the future
Short construction times through innovative
system building methods, clear
cost management, top construction
quality and hence better living quality –
the concept for the world’s current tallest
20-storey wooden hybrid building
is impressive down to the last detail.
The construction of energy-efficient
towers, like the Life-Cycle Tower, is not
only an expansion to the Rhomberg
range of products and services and
a major commercial opportunity for
the company; it also provides a simple
answer to the question of whether
the world of tomorrow needs sustainable
building concepts in order to face
the future with confidence. And the
answer is “Yes”.
Construction phase 1 Construction phase 2 Construction phase 3
The completed Life-Cycle Tower
24 NEW DIMENSIONS | CREE