Wooden High-Rise in Tokyo

Tokyo’s Sumitomo Forestry Co., Ltd. is preparing to create a 70 floor wooden high-rise building. The planned structure is a hybrid wood and steel structure made from 90% wooden materials. It will use a braced tube structure in which steel frame vibration control braces (diagonal braces) are positioned inside a column and beam structure, made from a combination of wood and steel. The outermost side is designed with balconies that continue around all four sides of the building. The balcony areas give the high-rise building a space in which people can enjoy fresh outside air, rich natural elements and sunshine filtering through foliage. The greenery connects from the ground to the top floors through the balconies, and offers a view of biodiversity in an urban setting. The interior structure is pure wood, producing a calm space that exudes the warmth and gentleness of wood. A structural system is composed of brace tubes made from columns, beams and braces. To prevent deformation of the building due to lateral forces such as earthquakes or wind, a brace is diagonally inserted into the incorporated framework assembled by columns and beams.

Sumitomo Forestry has a vision of “changing towns into forests.” Such buildings create a comfortable environment for both plants and living organisms, providing a pleasant space for the people living there and in the surrounding city. These structures are like a forest, a habitat for living things. The project’s cost is approximately 600 billion yen.

source: sfc.jp