Skyscrapers weren’t supposed to be made of wood.

Concrete and steel? Sure. That’s how we’ve built for more than a century. But in France, a different kind of skyline is emerging—one shaped by engineered timber, not poured concrete. And this isn’t just some greenwashed concept sketch. These towers are real, occupied and getting taller by the year.

From Bordeaux to Paris, France is betting big on mass timber—not as an experiment but as a mainstream material that’s fast to assemble, low-carbon by nature and increasingly cost-competitive. Spurred by tough national climate laws and a culture that values architectural ambition, the country is rewriting what’s possible with wood.

Bordeaux Quietly Leads the Timber Charge

You’d think Paris would take the lead on mass timber skyscrapers. But it’s Bordeaux that quietly stole the spotlight.

Start with Hyperion, a 17-story, 57-meter mixed-use tower completed in 2021. It remains France’s tallest wooden-framed residential building. Built by Eiffage Immobilier, Hyperion used approximately 1,400 cubic meters of engineered wood and stores around 1,000 metric tons of CO₂—the equivalent of nearly a decade of emissions from a typical apartment building.

More than 1,500 components were prefabricated off-site—including cross-laminated timber (CLT) floors, glulam beams and modular timber-framed walls—and then assembled on-site in just five months. The structure sits on a concrete base and core for seismic stability, but everything above is a showcase of wood engineering.

Next comes Silva Tower, scheduled to finish in late 2025. At 56 meters and 16 stories, Silva is Bordeaux’s second mass timber high-rise. More than 60% of the structure is made from wood, combining French pine CLT floors with spruce glulam beams sourced across Europe. According to developer Kaufman & Broad, Silva represents a “low-carbon trajectory”—and at this scale, that’s not just marketing spin.

Paris Is Building Bold—and Tall

Paris has joined the timber party with projects that balance density, detail and design ambition.

Take Wood Up, a 50-meter, 14-story tower in the city’s 13ᵗʰ arrondissement. Completed in 2024, it uses French beech from Normandy—shipped in by barge—along with Douglas fir columns and a glulam frame. The structural system relies on a three-story concrete podium and dual timber column rings: beech inside for strength, Douglas fir outside for stiffness.

Then there’s Le Berlier, another 50-meter residential project by Moreau Kusunoki. The design pairs clean, modern lines with a charred timber façade, blending texture and warmth. It’s composed of two volumes—one 15 stories, the other eight—forming a dense but elegant massing that aligns with the city’s push for sustainable, high-density timber housing.

Meanwhile, in the suburb of Villiers-sur-Marne, Stefano Boeri Architetti is planning Forêt Blanche, a 54-meter Vertical Forest wrapped in 2,000 trees, shrubs and plants. Equal parts high-rise and habitat, the tower’s green façade covers the surface area of a hectare of forest, marking a bold merger of biophilic design and climate-conscious urban planning.

The Policy Backdrop: France Isn’t Just Hoping—It’s Mandating

France’s shift to timber isn’t just a design choice—it’s legally backed.

The RE2020 regulation, rolled out in 2022, imposes some of the world’s strictest limits on lifecycle emissions for new buildings. Material choices are central. If you’re using concrete or steel, you’d better have a good reason, because mass timber has become the low-carbon benchmark.

The same year, a new sustainability law took it further: all state-funded public buildings must use at least 50% wood or other bio-based materials by weight. There’s no fine print. No room for loopholes. The target is mandatory, and the market is responding.

Starting May 2025, updated fire safety codes formally allowed mass timber in high-rise and public-use buildings, a major regulatory unlock. And while fire fears still linger, they’re largely outdated: mass timber chars on the outside, forming a protective barrier, and when paired with hybrid design and sprinkler systems, performs on par with concrete in fire scenarios.

Timber’s Cost Premium? Narrowing by the Year

Mass timber still costs more than concrete, but the gap is shrinking.

In dense urban regions like Paris, timber housing tends to carry a modest cost premium, typically in the single-digit to low-double-digit range per square meter. But in regions like Poitou-Charentes, or when measured over the building’s full lifecycle, that premium shrinks significantly—and in some cases, reaches cost parity.

In 2023, the French Ministry of Agriculture’s Agreste report highlighted that mass-timber construction increasingly competes with traditional methods, particularly outside dense urban centers.

It found that while timber builds in Paris-area markets can carry modest premiums, in rural regions—such as Poitou-Charentes—cost differences narrow significantly. When considering prefabrication efficiencies and whole-life value, these timber structures are often price-competitive with concrete-built equivalents 

Scaling Up: France’s Timber Industry Grows—But Faces Headwinds

The numbers are rising: France’s prefab wood construction market is worth €1.5 billion, growing at around 3% annually. CLT and glulam are leading the charge, with domestic and international suppliers investing in new plants.

In 2024, Schilliger Holz AG opened a fully automated CLT plant in Vogelsheim with 50,000 cubic meters of annual production capacity—a step toward strengthening domestic supply.

Still, the industry faces supply-side bottlenecks. Softwood harvesting has plateaued. Domestic hardwoods remain underutilized. And climate change is complicating forest management, forcing salvage logging and putting pressure on biodiversity.

Building the Future: Education, Workforce and Skill Development

France is also investing in talent. The University of Lorraine offers a master’s degree in Wood Construction Architecture through ENSTIB, in partnership with the National School of Architecture of Nancy.

The country is also helping launch the first pan-European campus focused on forestry, timber construction and architectural trades.

It’s a long game—but the foundations are already in place.

The Road Ahead: From Niche to Norm

France’s push to build skyscrapers from wood isn’t a fleeting trend or eco-friendly window dressing but a full-scale rethink of how cities grow—and the bet is starting to pay off. Sure, challenges remain: supply chains, policy hurdles, cost pressures. But the momentum is real.

As carbon limits tighten and prefab workflows accelerate, timber isn’t the alternative anymore. It’s the benchmark.

The only question now is how fast the rest of the world catches up.