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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?
(Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Tuesday February 20 2018, @10:23PM (3 children)
Un-necessary green washing. We could do that with steel and concrete, but its seldom cost effective, or even all that desirable. Nothing about wood makes this easier.
Wood has some structural advantages over steel. In a fire, wood will give adequate warning of collapse, (cracking sounds and actual fire), whereas steel will simply collapse with no warning when the temperature reaches its ductile point. Firemen can and do go into a wood building on fire, but are very cautious about entering steel frame buildings.
Wood has the highest tensile strength per unit of weight or cross section of any building material known to man. (Not that our buildings are designed to take advantage of tensile strength. Few are, other than some Japanese designs).
The problems glossed over in the Treehugger article is that the whole thing would be composed of glue-lams, and its the "lam" part that has historically been problematic. Then there is the exposure of wood to the elements, (not to mention all those cute animals and insects they want to invite inside). And even a small fire, triggering sprinklers could cause water damage to exposed wood.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 21 2018, @12:43AM
Well, the site is called Tree Hugger.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by linkdude64 on Wednesday February 21 2018, @02:04AM
I for one welcome our new cute animal and insect officemates.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday February 21 2018, @02:14AM
Wood does not have the highest tensile strength by weight or by cross section. Perhaps you meant to phrase that differently?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek