No wonder this impressive 27 000 m² office/ commercial space on the outskirts of Paris is called the Wonder Building. It has utterly transformed a disused industrial site into nothing short of a sustainable wonder!

The Wonder Building by the French architect firm Coldefy and commissioned by the investment company Novaxia, is a large-scale project in Bagnolet, France.

The building is constructed using a mix of materials, including 11 000m² of Sylva™ by Stora Enso CLT rib panels and stairs.

The Sylva stairs were prefabricated in a factory setting and delivered as a single component which removed the need for a temporary construction staircase and provided immediate, safe and robust access to all the floors by the construction team.

Once the construction phase was complete, the same stairs became an eye-catching feature of the overall design.

With very little exposed end grain, the stairs have enhanced resistance to damage and moisture and will stand the test of time as thousands of office workers use them daily.

The structural bond between the components in Rib Panels by Stora Enso reduces the supporting structure’s depth and optimises the volume of timber material. This gives Rib Panels an advantage over traditional mechanically fastened Rib Panels where the components are simply screwed together. This makes it possible to:

The use of Sylva CLT rib panels allowed the architects more freedom to create wide open spans. And because rib panels are so wonderfully lightweight, they were easy to lift and put in place without adding unnecessary weight to a building's overall design.

Working with engineered wood components also allowed for a much lighter structure and 30% faster construction time!

The project has already been nominated for several awards and surpasses many of France's high environmental standards. The 3 280 m³ of Stora Enso's CLT alone removed 2 499 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and will safely store the CO₂ in the wood structure for the entire life cycle of the building. How the Wonder Building was built also reduced air pollution in the busy urban centre because constructing with mass timber typically requires 80% fewer deliveries than steel and concrete.

You can take a tour of the building here: https://youtu.be/Im7IvW3HcGE