Tokyo to Build 350M Tower Made of Wood

Megalith

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Japanese wood products company Sumitomo Forestry is building the world’s tallest wood skyscraper in Tokyo. Only 10% of the 1,148ft, 70-tower building will consist of steel; the interior structure will be entirely composed of wood.

Balconies on all four sides of the building’s exterior will facilitate the spread of greenery from the ground to the top floors, contributing to urban biodiversity. It is estimated that it will take 185,000 cubic metres of wood to complete the entire structure.
 
Vader1975

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Cedar Point couldn't keep up wooden roller-coasters with treated wood without replacing tons of the beams every single year. This is going to be a logistical repair nightmare if it is ever built. Not including the fact that the skyscraper itself is flammable. Wood rots eventually. This is going to go very very wrong.
 
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zehoo

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You would hate to be on the top floor if a fire broke out. It's bad enough some builders some how get away with using cheap non-fireproof cladding, but building the whole thing out of wood............
 
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Chunder

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Mugato said:
Look up wood construction guys, it’s compressed, has better flexibility and is just as safe in a fire as metal.
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I was going to post this, but you beat me to it. Reading comments made in ignorant bliss is amusing though.
 
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jedijeb13

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It takes much longer to set a log on fire than it does the paper covering of dry wall. That is one reason the fire hazard in a log cabin is lower than in a normal house. Also the rot problem depends on the species of wood used. We have red cedar and locust post on the farm that have been there in the ground for 40 years and are still not rotted, even in wet conditions, if they had been oak or pine they would have been gone a long time ago. Use Teak wood and see how long it lasts.
 
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Mugato said:
Look up wood construction guys, it’s compressed, has better flexibility and is just as safe in a fire as metal.
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Even so, the mental roadblock would be hard to overcome for many. Maybe not in Japan, but certainly in the West. Would the damn thing creak in the wind? I can imagine being on a top floor and the building creaking and groaning like an old wooden boat on high seas.
 
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Wolfkin

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My first thought was - is this possible? Can wood stand up to the weight of the whole building?
 
Chapeau

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Would that be a record? I'm pretty sure some of the old temples managed (Nara?) were crazy tall...
 
velusip

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Chapeau said:
Would that be a record? I'm pretty sure some of the old temples managed (Nara?) were crazy tall...
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It says the current unofficial record is a wooden apartment building in Vancouver, BC at 53m, which isn't all that crazy since the wood is well protected from the elements. I understand that concrete isn't the nicest, earth-friendly of materials, but when your building is hosting hundreds of HUMANS, what the building is made of is the least of anyone's concern. Missing the mark.
 
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sirmonkey1985 said:
There are a lot of hardwoods that are naturally termite resistent. But past that point how can they claim bio diversity when your building requires an entire Brazilian rain forest worth of wood to build? Counter productive much?
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Forming steal requires just as much, wood is replishable, more so than steel and doesn’t require special smelting processes or forming to be useful.

The stuff they are going to be using on the other hand isn’t straight off the tree lumber.
 
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Nallexi

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Vader1975 said:
Cedar Point couldn't keep up wooden roller-coasters with treated wood without replacing tons of the beams every single year. This is going to be a logistical repair nightmare if it is ever built. Not including the fact that the skyscraper itself is flammable. Wood rots eventually. This is going to go very very wrong.
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I'm sure the Japanese can get it done, but it's going to be horribly expensive to make it all stable and safe to live in for the long term. You pay a premium for living in a novel design, I guess.
 
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I have no doubt that wood can be used to make a suitable, strong structure. I have no doubt that it will be so far away from economic to do, that the government will be involved in the project. Only 10% from steel? Think of the size of the wooden pillars required to support the weight of 1148 vertical feet - with stress. Of course, I bet the real "wood" construction will be mostly whatever kind of epoxy or composite product they use to hold it together. More like concrete (or fiberglass, really) than wood, I'd bet.
 
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Vader1975 said:
Cedar Point couldn't keep up wooden roller-coasters with treated wood without replacing tons of the beams every single year. This is going to be a logistical repair nightmare if it is ever built. Not including the fact that the skyscraper itself is flammable. Wood rots eventually. This is going to go very very wrong.
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There are plenty of very old large wooden structures still standing in Japan. We're talking several hundreds of years old.

Also, Tokyo is in a much milder climate compared to Ohio, which goes through substantial freeze and thaw cycles. Tokyo mostly stays above freezing.

You also have to consider the difference between the load a roller coaster places on a structure, versus mostly static weights, with foot traffic probably being the biggest contributor to vibration.

Certainly I have my reservations about large wooden structures, but a roller coaster in a much harsher climate isn't really a fair comparison.

I'd be more worried about seismic events. That being said, there's many reasons as to why very old robust wooden structures have survived in Japan.
 
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Mugato said:
Look up wood construction guys, it’s compressed, has better flexibility and is just as safe in a fire as metal.
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What type of wood would you be referring to? MDF is a compressed wood, but I'm fairly sure it will still burn if exposed to enough heat. Looking up "wood construction" doesn't really provide any useful info via google. The one part I would question is what happens to any type of "wood" composite after it reaches it's melting point. Metal just melts into a molten form, and it will burn off impurities, but otherwise doesn't burn material. I'm not sure if that once you cross that threshold with a wood composite the material wouldn't burn if exposed to enough heat. There are plenty of sources that can burn 2,000F+, (Basic propane / natural gas) but even some of the best fire rated insulation is really only good up to 2,000F. I don't know what type of ranges there are for different wood composites.
 
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Trimlock said:
Shhh it’s fun to read ignorant replies.
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Don't pretend you or anyone else know a thing about building a SKYSCRAPER out of wood. This is far beyond anything attempted before. Unless you've crunched the numbers in a simulation on a supercomputer, then you are as clueless as the next guy about the feasibility of such a construct.

Lest we forget, this is just a proposition, and the Japanese are big on proposing ridiculous engineering projects that never truly have a chance of seeing the first shovel put to (see Sky City 1000 or X-Seed 4000).
 
rudy

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There are a lot of sky scrapers that are getting nuts. There is a pretty big race to make them or be able to claim unique records. TBH the most screwed up ones that scare me are the ones they are building in NYC that are just insanely thin and tall so they can cram more rich people around central park in a place that has the foot print of my yard but goes 1000 feet up in the air.
 
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PanzeR-

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bman212121 said:
What type of wood would you be referring to? MDF is a compressed wood, but I'm fairly sure it will still burn if exposed to enough heat. Looking up "wood construction" doesn't really provide any useful info via google. The one part I would question is what happens to any type of "wood" composite after it reaches it's melting point. Metal just melts into a molten form, and it will burn off impurities, but otherwise doesn't burn material. I'm not sure if that once you cross that threshold with a wood composite the material wouldn't burn if exposed to enough heat. There are plenty of sources that can burn 2,000F+, (Basic propane / natural gas) but even some of the best fire rated insulation is really only good up to 2,000F. I don't know what type of ranges there are for different wood composites.
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Laminated wooden beams.

http://nordic.ca/en

We have some 10 stories building with laminated wooden beams in construction over here, not quite 70 stories lol.
 
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MrDeaf

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notarat said:
I was just reading about a breakthrough in pressing wood combined with certain chemicals that results in wood that is, seriously, not lying or joking here, stronger than steel.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/...-speeding-bullet-mdash-it-rsquo-s-super-wood/
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That's pretty impressive strength for wood.
I wonder if that's what they intend to use?

PanzeR- said:
Laminated wooden beams.

http://nordic.ca/en

We have some 10 stories building with laminated wooden beams in construction over here, not quite 70 stories lol.
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I may have overlooked some, but I did notice that most, if not all, of their building projects were in the east coast or midwestern parts of Canada and America.
Unlike the west coast of NA or Japan, there are hardly any earthquakes to worry about.
 
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ZiggyDeath said:
There are plenty of very old large wooden structures still standing in Japan. We're talking several hundreds of years old.

Also, Tokyo is in a much milder climate compared to Ohio, which goes through substantial freeze and thaw cycles. Tokyo mostly stays above freezing.

You also have to consider the difference between the load a roller coaster places on a structure, versus mostly static weights, with foot traffic probably being the biggest contributor to vibration.

Certainly I have my reservations about large wooden structures, but a roller coaster in a much harsher climate isn't really a fair comparison.

I'd be more worried about seismic events. That being said, there's many reasons as to why very old robust wooden structures have survived in Japan.
Click to expand...

Meh. Just the wind loading on the side of any major structure is many times greater in force than any rollercoaster even gets close to, I'd bet. Not a static load, either.
 
SomeoneElse

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Hows it going to hold up to a 7.8 mag earthquake? Isn't Tokyo / the rest of Japan highly susceptible to seismic activity?
 
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I hope the descendants of Jimmy Doolittle aren't feeling nostalgic.
 
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