This year, METROPOLIS recognizes the architect Michael Green with its inaugural Planet Positive Visionary Award for his pioneering work with timber architecture and his vision for architecture that is fundamentally grounded in nature and the earth.

In 2012, Green gave a TED talk titled “Why We Should Build Wooden Skyscrapers” that seeded a new idea in the minds of architects all over North America. “We have an ethic that the Earth grows our food,” he declared, “and we need to move to an ethic in this century that the Earth should grow our homes.” Since then, the mass timber revolution, with Green at its vanguard, has helped transform the construction industry and changed how we think about forestry and forest-based economies. Michael Green Architecture, the firm that Green co-leads with Natalie Telewiak, has completed some of the most significant timber buildings in the world, and has been recognized with over fifty international awards for design excellence.

Resources

Michael Green Architecture

Michael Green: Why We Should Build Wooden Skyscrapers

T3 Minneapolis by Michael Green Architecture

The 2026 Planet Positive Awards Project and Innovation Finalists

33 Articles That Show the Future Is Mass Timber

This episode is presented by Teknion

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.