Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday February 20 2018, @09:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the green-architecture dept.

TreeHugger reports:

Sumitomo Forestry, an industry giant in Japan, [is] pivoting to plyscrapers and proposing a 70-story, 350 meter (1148') tower for the Marunouchi district in Tokyo. It's called W350, the plan being that it will be finished in 2041, the 350th anniversary of the founding of the company.

[...] Using a hybrid 9:1 ratio of wood to steel, Sumitomo Forestry aims to replace concrete, which is one of the world's largest carbon footprint contributors. The skyscraper would be a 70-floor mixed-use building that would include a hotel, office space, commercial space, and residences. Wrap-around balconies at different intervals would be planted with lush wildlife. And greenery would extend throughout the entire complex, creating a vertical forest where humans and wildlife can flourish.

[...] It is a brace tube structure, "a structural system that forms a cylindrical shell (brace tube) with columns / beams and braces. By placing braces diagonally in a set of shafts assembled with columns and beams, it prevents the building from deforming against lateral forces such as earthquakes and wind."

The images are beautiful.

Previously: Super Wood Could Replace Steel
The Case for Wooden Skyscrapers
Can You Build A Safe, Sustainable Skyscraper Out Of Wood?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday February 20 2018, @09:56PM (5 children)

    by Freeman (732) on Tuesday February 20 2018, @09:56PM (#640878) Journal

    Wood is Organic. It will decay much faster than metal or rock. They may be able to treat the wood in such a way as to not make it into a giant tinder box, but I would not have good feelings about working in one every day. Wood is beautiful, but fire can be as well. Fire's not so beautiful, if you're surrounded by it in a burning building. How quickly would the Twin Towers have gone down, if they had been made of wood? How many would have made it out by comparison?

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by takyon on Tuesday February 20 2018, @10:06PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Tuesday February 20 2018, @10:06PM (#640884) Journal

    Jet fuel can't melt wood beams.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 2, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday February 22 2018, @01:36AM

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Thursday February 22 2018, @01:36AM (#641558) Homepage Journal

      They say it was Jets, you may find it was THERMITE. We went after Iraq, they did not knock down the World Trade Center. It wasn’t the Iraqis that knocked down the World Trade Center, we went after Iraq, we decimated the country, Iran’s taking over, OK? But it wasn’t the Iraqis, you will find out who really knocked down the World Trade Center. Because they have papers in there that are very secret, you may find it’s the Saudis, OK? But you will find out.

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by bob_super on Tuesday February 20 2018, @10:12PM (1 child)

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday February 20 2018, @10:12PM (#640892)

    Solid wood is a terrible heat conductor, and burns very slowly. That's why you put he big log in the chimney to last the whole night.
    While it's burning, it may retain more strength than many metals exposed to the same amount of heat (they're not burning, but everything but the concrete does). Also, the assembly process and the fastening being very different, it would be hard to tell how long the Twin towers would have stood if made of wood. The blunt trauma would have sheared off some columns, but the explosion might have had less impact.

    As far as decay, TFA explains that the structure is designed to enable swapping timbers.
    Most modern buildings are only designed for a hundred years or so, while wooden beams in castles can be a thousand years, and many battles, old.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 21 2018, @01:48AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 21 2018, @01:48AM (#640983)

      In the chimney? I put mine in the stove and keep the chimney clear.

  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday February 21 2018, @12:00AM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday February 21 2018, @12:00AM (#640941)

    The thing I dislike the most about wood construction around here is mold, and termites. Wood (even when treated) supports the growth of all kinds of things in the dark, and if you should ever get any water on it, it only gets worse.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]