[ClearCase_guy]

Wood is a green, renewable resource.

Until it burns.

[marktwain]

Wood is great fuel...

[kaehurowing]

One word:

Termites

[laplata]

Fire trap. An arsonist dream.

[righttackle44]

You call the people in this building "the dead" after the earthquake or the fire. Or the earthquake and the fire.

[Enchante]

"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."

DOUBLE the cost just so you can say you built with wood??? Yeah, that is rational.

[Deaf Smith]

So they sell their lumber in cubic meters instead of board feet?

Or will it all be particle and wafer board?

[kanawa]

Godzilla will make short work of that.

[napscoordinator]

The jokes just write themselves.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Got wood?

[Jamestown1630]

What could possibly go wrong?

[AzNASCARfan]

As a structural drafter for the last 31 years, I can say this is one of the craziest ideas I have ever heard.... ESPECIALLY there with the earthquakes they have. Highest I have done in wood, is 4 story wood hotels, think they were Comfort suites etc... I am not an engineer, but the problem with wood I think becomes the width to height ratio that kills the shear designs. Wind governs design here in Arizona, but pretty sure Seismic will there. The stuff I did in San Francisco years ago, out of concrete and only 24 stories high for the towers, were insanely reinforced. Barely enough room left to get concrete in after all the steel was in there. I have already sent this article on to a few different engineers I have worked with over the years to ask their opinions on it... Just seems insane to me!

[Enduro Guy]

“...the planned structure will be a hybrid of mostly wood and steel.”

That statement made me lose all interest...

[Ezekiel]

The company notes that forests cover approximately two thirds (68.5 percent) of Japan's land area.

What about after W350? People will be pining for the good old days..

[wastedyears]

Those crazy Japanese.

[gaijin]

I’m almost sure this is that new “Densified Wood”.

They take out the lignin —the part that makes wood brown— and then they bake in some Pexiglass stuff.

The result is so strong that the military considered it as cheap ARMOR.

Even auto makers are thinking about using it.

TECHNICALLY a type of former wood.

People are thinking “log cabin” and that’s wrong.

[mosesdapoet]

No pix, no clicks particularly when if it’s from a MSM venue.

[LibWhacker]

They didn't say anything about densified wood here, but i'm pretty sure that's what they are talking about. It's stronger than steel. Coincidentally, I just posted this article about "super wood" yesterday.

[Rummyfan]

Sounds like a fire disaster waiting to happen.

[Reno89519]

Shaped and finished like a match stick?