350 meters! A Japanese company plans to push wooden buildings to another new height.

Recently, Sumitomo Forestry, a Japanese architectural developer and building materials manufacturer, announced an ambitious plan: in 2041, the 350th anniversary of Sumitomo's founding, a 350-meter-high wooden building 'W350' will rise in the Marunouchi commercial district in the center of Tokyo.

“W350”will be built through a collaboration between Sumitomo Forestry and Nikken Sekkei. It combines multiple functions such as retail, office, hotel, and apartment spaces. This 70-story building will have a total area of 455,000 square meters, with large-scale vertical gardens interspersed between the floors. The estimated construction cost is as high as 600 billion yen (approximately 5.5 billion US dollars).

Before constructing this building, Sumitomo Forestry will first build a 14-story, 70-meter wooden structure as a trial. Up to now, there is no wooden building in Japan that exceeds 7 stories in height.

Wood, as a sustainable building material, is rarely used in the construction of skyscrapers in cities. Over the past hundred years, most buildings with wood as their main structure have been light-frame structures with no more than three to six floors. People generally believe that wood has low strength, is not resistant to corrosion, and is flammable, making it unsuitable for building high-rises.

However, in an interview published by Archdaily in Arup Connect magazine, Robert Gerard, a fire protection engineer from  ARUP's San Francisco office, found through experiments on a series of six-story lightweight wooden structures that the safety of their structure and function fully meets the requirements and is no worse than that of non-combustible materials such as steel and cement.

Recently, a group of wood material advocates has emerged. They argue that wood is more beneficial to the environment because it can absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (each cubic meter of wood can absorb 1 ton). On the other hand, wood has the characteristics of improving acoustic and thermal performance, which can provide residents with a more comfortable and healthy indoor environment.

In the current 'W350' concept, Sumitomo plans to mix wood and steel in a 9:1 ratio to replace concrete while ensuring the building's seismic resistance. Sumitomo Forestry owns 1/900 of Japan's national land as forested areas and is also Japan's largest builder of wooden houses. Leveraging its advantages in wooden house construction, it will continue to test the possibilities of wood materials, seeking a special material that can resist fire for three hours. Additionally, waterproofness is one of the considerations in choosing wood materials, and it will be necessary to apply fire-retardant materials similar to tea tree oil on the surface of the wood. The amount of wood expected to be used in the construction of 'W350' is approximately equivalent to that used in building 8,000 ordinary Japanese houses. Through this project, Sumitomo Forestry also hopes to promote the revitalization and development of Japan's forestry industry.

If this building can be successfully completed, it will become the world's tallest wooden structure and will surpass the 300-meter-high Abeno Harukas to become Japan's tallest building.

Image source：spoon tamago

Article reprinted from:  Curiosity Daily / Your headlines shouldn't just be trivial matters; let curiosity drive your world