Dialog builds North America’s largest mass timber building 

In Vancouver, architecture studio Dialog has completed construction of North America’s tallest mass timber building.  Dubbed the Hive, the 10-story building in False Creek Flats is shaped like a honeycomb and is used as office space. 

Martin Nielsen, a partner at Dialog, told Fast Company that wood can better withstand seismic activity than steel and concrete—a major consideration in earthquake-prone western Canada.

“Concrete is the worst,” Nielsen says. “It’s really stiff, brittle, and it breaks… [but] wood has a bit of a bend. Clearly, in the case of a big earthquake, the glass might pop out, but the structure will remain sound.”

By swapping steel and concrete for wood, Dialog also lowered the building’s carbon dioxide emissions by 1,542 metric tons of CO₂