The flat-pack skyscraper: how wood can shape the cities of the future

Our buildings are monuments to extraction and extreme emissions. But what if we turned from destructive concrete to timber? Last chance to buy the summer issue of The Long Read magazine, now with 15% off. Click here to order I travelled to Oslo in the early autumn. It felt like arriving into the future. Or, at least, a fragment of a possible future. I drove north in the quiet digital bubble of my electric rental car. In 2024, Norway became the first country in the world where electric cars outnumbered petrol cars. A smooth, pristine motorway unfolded between farmlands and low hillsides of dense green forest. Long tunnels carried the route up above the banks of Lake Mjøsa, Norway’s largest lake. After a little more than an hour, the road curved downward to run parallel to the lakeshore. Through gaps in a line of golden birch trees, a tall, slim structure broke the horizon. It rose from the water’s edge, topped by a triangular crown of bare, interlocking beams. Against the heavy grey sky and the enfolding mist, it radiated a gentle warmth from its pale burnt-orange exterior. The only building of any height anywhere in the surrounding landscape, it is known as Mjøstårnet, the “Tower