The (CLT)ower project reinterprets Mies van der Rohe’s architectural legacy in a contemporary mass timber high-rise, marrying modernist structural clarity and discipline with sustainable innovation. At its core, the design is governed by a rigorous structural logic rooted in a disciplined grid that orchestrates space and support with modular precision. This rational framework echoes Mies’s devotion to order and clarity, employing a modular rhythm to achieve a sense of tectonic harmony reminiscent of his architectural language. Yet, while it draws on this Miesian rationality, the design departs from steel-and-glass orthodoxy by embracing cross-laminated timber (CLT) – a contemporary material that introduces warmth and organic dynamism without sacrificing structural precision.

In line with Mies’s concept of universal space, the project strives for open, flexible interiors that transcend specific programmatic constraints. However, it challenges the notion that such spatial universality requires a column-free expanse. Timber columns, arrayed on a regular grid, punctuate the interior volumes without fragmenting them. These structural elements articulate space and subtly frame functional zones, proving that openness and adaptability can coexist with visible support. The CLT system provides both structural clarity and environmental performance: it maintain. Miesian clarity and discipline while infusing the space with the tactile warmth of wood and a forward-looking sustainable ethos. The result is an architectural dialogue between Mies’s timeless ideals and contemporary innovation – a tower that retains the disciplined minimalism of its modernist inspiration even as it humanizes the high-rise typology with material richness and a conscious commitment to ecological responsibility.