The buildings they envision have been dubbed "plyscrapers." Their halting arrival into the mainstream of architecture represents a test case for whether the goal of sustainability can motivate a reversal of both long-term construction norms and the laws that have grown around them.

When a little-known Canadian architect suggested last year that a skyscraper could be made almost entirely from wood, the head of wood engineering at one of Britain's biggest builders scoffed. When the architects responsible for the world’s tallest building touted a similar "plyscraper" in May, the idea became harder to dismiss.

Michael Green, who detailed his vision for the world's first "timber skyscraper" during a keynote address last week at a Green Cities conference in Australia, told Postmedia News on Monday that a provincially supported study due to be released later this month will show that such buildings can be cost-saving as well as both fire- and earthquake-safe.