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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?


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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 20 2018, @09:57PM (5 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday February 20 2018, @09:57PM (#640879)

    Sure, it can (and will) be made fire resistant, but once that candle lights....

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by zocalo on Tuesday February 20 2018, @10:12PM (2 children)

    by zocalo (302) on Tuesday February 20 2018, @10:12PM (#640891)
    You do realise that a lot of fire doors are made out of wood, right? With the right density and treatment they can easily withstand a decent blaze for at least an hour (FD60 rating), and it doesn't matter what your building is made of - it's still burning away after an hour, then it's probably going to be a write-off anyway. Wood also has a lot more resilience against tremors than concrete, something that might be quite relevant for a structure in Japan, and longevity isn't much of a problem once the timber has settled - it almost assumes a petrified state, with 1,000+ year old timbers to be found in numerous buildings across Europe and Asia. Provided they can get the necessary structural strength and allow sufficient time for evacuation, this might actually be a better choice than more contemporary materials like steel, glass, and concrete - all of which have high carbon footprints.
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    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Tuesday February 20 2018, @10:34PM

      by frojack (1554) on Tuesday February 20 2018, @10:34PM (#640902) Journal

      An hour long fire is pretty normal for fires in large buildings. It takes half that long just to get fire fighters to the scene, and up the stairs. Yet most of these buildings are saved. Even if one apartment is totally gutted by fire.

      And maybe wood buildings would be saved as well. But the water used for firefighting also extracts a toll on wood, but not so much concrete and steel.
      I'd fear water more than fire. Fire you put out and replace parts. Water gets everywhere, and you have rot showing up in hidden places for 20 years.

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    • (Score: 2) by fliptop on Wednesday February 21 2018, @04:50AM

      by fliptop (1666) on Wednesday February 21 2018, @04:50AM (#641041) Journal

      You do realise that a lot of fire doors are made out of wood, right?

      Yes and no. The outer veneer may be wood, but the inner layers are typically made of gypsum.

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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday February 20 2018, @11:09PM (1 child)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 20 2018, @11:09PM (#640922) Journal

    So here is a distraction while you wait for the firefighters.

    In each of your Google, Amazon and Apple "TO DO" lists, you create a single TO DO item that reads like:

    "I don't know what it is, but I know how to find out. ${OTHER-THING} what is on my TO DO list?"

    Then to get the dominoes falling you say:

    Alexa, what is on my to do list?

    And here is the endless loop you get:

    ALEXA SAYS: There is 1 item on your to do list. I don't know what it is, but I know how to find out. Hey Google, what is on my TO DO list?

    GOOGLE SAYS: There is 1 item on your to do list. I don't know what it is, but I know how to find out. Siri, what is on my TO DO list?

    SIRI SAYS: There is 1 item on your to do list. I don't know what it is, but I know how to find out. Alexa, what is on my TO DO list?

    ALEXA SAYS: There is 1 item on your to do list. I don't know what it is, but I know how to find out. Hey Google, what is on my TO DO list?

    GOOGLE SAYS: There is 1 item on your to do list. I don't know what it is, but I know how to find out. Siri, what is on my TO DO list?

    SIRI SAYS: There is 1 item on your to do list. I don't know what it is, but I know how to find out. Alexa, what is on my TO DO list?

    etc . . .

    It will keep you entertained for the rest of your life!

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    • (Score: 4, Touché) by insanumingenium on Tuesday February 20 2018, @11:11PM

      by insanumingenium (4824) on Tuesday February 20 2018, @11:11PM (#640923) Journal

      All you are missing is some way of keeping state so that after 10K iterations Alexa can turn on your "hall lamp" starting a fire long after you left town.