Posted on 02/20/2018 5:21:18 PM PST by nickcarraway
A Japanese company is planning to build the world's tallest wooden skyscraper with 90 percent of the building made of wood.
Sumitomo Forestry says its wooden high-rise — dubbed the W350 — will be 350 meters tall and the planned structure will be a hybrid of mostly wood and steel.
The 70-storey building, expected to be built in Tokyo, will comprise of stores, offices, hotels and private homes, the company noted in plans released earlier in February.
Sumitomo Forestry, which notes on its website that "happiness grows from trees," said it aimed to create environmentally-friendly, timber-utilizing cities which "become forests through increased use of wooden architecture for high-rise buildings."
Building with wood is still not cheap, however.
Using 185,000 cubic meters of timber, the building is expected to cost around 600 billion Japanese yen ($5.6 billion) which is twice the amount of a conventional high-rise building constructed with current technology.
Sumitomo Forestry However, the company believed that those costs would come down as timber became a more-frequently used material: "Going forward, the economic feasibility of the project will be enhanced by reducing costs through technological development."
Currently the tallest wooden building is 18-storeys high (53 meters) and serves as accommodation for students at the University of British Colombia.
Greenery will feature heavily in the building from Sumitomo Forestry with foliage connecting from the ground to top floors offering "a view of biodiversity in an urban setting."
The building plans show balconies that continue around all four sides of the building, giving a space "in which people can enjoy fresh outside air, rich natural elements and sunshine filtering through foliage."
With earthquakes not unusual in Japan, the building will incorporate a structural system composed of braced tubes made from columns, beams and braces "to prevent deformation of the building due to lateral forces such as earthquakes or wind."
Wooden cities The concept for the building has been prepared primarily at Tsukuba Research Institute, Sumitomo Forestry's research and development facility.
The institute is looking at the "expanding possibilities for wooden buildings as a road map for future technology, such as the development of building methods, environmentally-friendly technologies, and trees that become resources and building materials," the company said.
Sumitomo Forestry can trace its origins in the timber industry back to 1691 and the W350 building is planned to mark the company's 350th anniversary in 2041.
The company notes that forests cover approximately two thirds (68.5 percent) of Japan's land area. This puts it at second place among OECD member countries, behind Finland.
However, the self-supply rate for domestically-produced timber is only at around 30 percent, the company states, and Japan's forests are at risk due to insufficient maintenance.
"Although the large amounts of Japanese cedar and Japanese cypress planted after the Second World War have now reached the time for harvesting, they are being left in an un-maintained state as devastation of our domestic forests continues. It is crucial to use these trees and replant them after harvesting to encourage sustainability of forests," the company said.
Thats cool & huge, my dad did a geodesic dome when i was a teenager. We did the garage from scratch and was such a pain, he ordered a kit for the dome structure of the house. It bolted together in a day. Then the fun began!
jenga!
Wow, that is one cool bridge... i have drawn a few of those too, none wood though.
No smoking or candles allowed, I assume....
Very interesting! Pagodas are really built to move. Wood is very flexible, and forgiving too.
Michigan doubles cross it all the time-that is, 165,000 pounds gross weight.
They are talking about replacing some of the bridges up in the UP with wood. Cheaper and easier to replace when they have to.
Must remember, the RR used wooden bridges for years and years. Matter of fact, I understand that a person can still buy some of the beams from those bridges and some of the beams are over 100 years old.
They said that they wanted to go a lot higher. The reason they didnt was there was no point in doing it.
Been in there a ton of times. It doesnt look that big until you get inside.
I guess the bigger the dome the stronger it is, to a point. Nw figure this out, that thing has a 60 PSF rating for snow! Code up there for houses is over 40 PSF.
“I’m almost sure this is that new “Densified Wood”.”
Yep, thinking the same - especially at 350 meters. Super-strong stuff. Stronger than steel. As for steel in a fire - not much to wrote home about either, at least during 9/11, the steel heated, softened, and that was it.
Stronger Than Steel, Able to Stop a Speeding Bullet—It’s Super Wood!
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3633308/posts
Save for later...
Well this is going to really end well.
I suppose you never read re: the Crimeanian war, which Switzerland gained their conversation to neutrality? The date was post Crusades.
Osaka Castle used to be made out of wood. It was absolutely marvelous craftsmanship. Now it’s a steal and plaster building it looks like a typical mall inside.
350 meters?!? Wow. In the middle ages, there was an 800 foot wood pagoda in India.
Anyone got a match?
Switzerland stopped getting involved in other country’s wars in the 1520s. Thus, neutrality became their policy long ago. Then around 1799, Napoleon invaded Switzerland and added it to his empire. Therefore, when the Congress of Vienna drew Europe’s borders after the Napoleonic Wars (1815), Switzerland’s neutrality was put down in writing at that point.
It’s all good until a drunken kariaoke head falls asleep with a lit cigarette.
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