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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...

River Beech Tower project, an 800-foot residential skyscraper that would be built almost entirely out of wood. Nor is it the only such effort. Similar plans are underway in London, Stockholm, and other cities. Eighteen-story buildings made of timber already exist in Vancouver and Minneapolis, while other structures have popped up in Norway and New Zealand. On the flip side, wood can sway too much, particularly in the wind — a major issue for taller buildings. For the River Beech Tower project, Snapp and his colleagues actually solved this problem by constructing the whole building out of triangle and diamond...

The Lingguan Tower in China was completed destroyed by flames yesterday Fire started from a hall below the pagoda and quickly spread to the structure Two other buildings in Nine Dragons Monastery were also reduced to rubble No casualties was reported and authority is investigating the cause of the fire A huge fire yesterday reduced a 16-storey Buddhist pagoda to rubble in China. The Lingguan Tower, billed as 'Asia's tallest wooden pagoda', burnt to the ground after being engulfed in the flames for about four hours. The fire reportedly started from a hall underneath the pagoda and quickly spread to...