Sumitomo Forestry Co., Ltd, a member of the Sumitomo Group, has big plans to celebrate the Group’s 350th anniversary in the year 2041: a 350-meter wooden tower that comprises retail, office, hotel, and residential space. The Tokyo-based tower would become Japan’s tallest building and the tallest wooden skyscraper in the world.
The overall goal of the high-rise, dubbed W350, is to help realize an environmentally conscious city of wooden buildings that would transform Tokyo into a “forest.” Sumitomo describes the tower as “a living place of living things.”
Courtesy of Sumitomo.
The mixed-use building, which is being designed in collaboration with Japanese architecture firm Nikken Sekkei, will be a wood and steel hybrid that consists of 90% wood. The interior will be made entirely of wood. It is designed to rise 70 stories and 350 meters (1148 feet) into the Tokyo sky. The total floor area will be approximately 455,000 sm and will use 185,000 cubic meters of wood. The company says using this amount of wood would have a two-pronged effect: it will equip the tower to remove about 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the air and will also be a catalyst to encourage reforestation.
The tower is designed with a braced tube structure. This system forms a cylindrical shell with columns/beams and braces. The braces are placed diagonally in a set of shafts assembled with columns and beams to prevent the building from deforming against lateral forces like earthquakes and wind. Balconies will wrap the exterior of the building to provide fresh air, nature, and sunlight.
Courtesy of Sumitomo.
W350’s cost is estimated at 600 billion yen, or $5.6 billion. For comparison, One World Trade Center cost $3.6 billion. Sumitomo says the cost of the wooden tower is almost twice that of conventionally constructed high-rise buildings. In order to bring those costs down, the company is accelerating its research and technology development in an attempt to increase the construction and economic feasibility of the project.
Courtesy of Sumitomo.
The current tallest wooden building in the world is the Brock Commons on the University of British Columbia campus. The building stands 53 meters, almost 300 meters shorter than the planned W350.
Japanese architecture firm Nikken Sekkei is helping to design the tower.
Courtesy of Sumitomo.
Related Stories
Sponsored | | Nov 20, 2015
Schooling the visitor
Exposed glulam and other engineered wood products help WSU tell its technology story
Architects | Oct 20, 2015
Four building material innovations from the Chicago Architecture Biennial
From lightweight wooden pallets to the largest lengths of CLT-slabs that can be shipped across North America
Multifamily Housing | Oct 15, 2015
Montreal apartment is world’s largest residential cross-laminated timber project
Its 434 condo, townhouse, and rental units in three eight-story buildings are made from sustainably harvested wood turned into panels by Canadian company Nordic Wood Structures together with the Cree Nation in Chibougamau.
Multifamily Housing | Oct 7, 2015
BIG designs lush, terraced mixed-use building in Sweden
Cascading glass and wooden cubes create a form similar to Northern Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway rock formation.
Sponsored | Wood | Sep 17, 2015
Compelling conversations about wood: coastal environments
Architect Greg Mella and APA’s Karyn Beebe have a frank and far-reaching discussion about the tangibles and intangibles of using wood in corrosive environments—and beyond.
Sponsored | Multifamily Housing | Aug 25, 2015
Engineered wood helps meet booming demand for multifamily projects
Multifamily housing starts reached 358,000 in 2014, a 16 percent increase over 2013 and the highest total since 2007
Codes and Standards | Jun 18, 2015
Guides to wood construction in high wind areas updated
The guides establish prescriptive, wind-resistive structural requirements for wood-frame buildings of different sizes and shapes.
Sponsored | Airports | Jun 5, 2015
Exposed glulam framework offers quiet complement to Jackson Hole airport’s mountain backdrop
A three-phase expansion and renovation, which began in 2009, nearly doubled the size of the aviation hub; the only one located in a national park
Wood | Jun 2, 2015
Michael Green Architecture designs world's tallest wood building for Paris competition
“Just as Gustave Eiffel shattered our conception of what was possible a century and a half ago, this project can push the envelope of wood innovation with France in the forefront," said architect Michael Green of the project.
Wood | May 21, 2015
How CLT wood construction affects project cost
SRG Partnership's Emily Dawson shares insights on the installation, availablilty, and cost of cross-laminated timber (CLT) construction, based on the firm's recent project at the Oregon Zoo.