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
High-rise Construction | Nov 1, 2016
Winthrop Square will give rise to Boston’s second tallest building
The building will become the tallest residential tower in the city.
Building Team | Oct 31, 2016
The world’s 100 tallest buildings: Who owns and has developed the most?
All but four owners/developers on the list are located in the United Arab Emirates, China, or Hong Kong.
High-rise Construction | Oct 28, 2016
The world’s 100 tallest buildings: Which contractors have worked on the most?
Only one firm has worked on more than 10 of the world’s 100 tallest buildings.
High-rise Construction | Oct 27, 2016
The world’s 100 tallest buildings: Which MEP engineers have worked on the most?
The top firm worked on over three times as many of the tallest buildings as the second place firm on the list.
High-rise Construction | Oct 26, 2016
The world’s 100 tallest buildings: Which structural engineers have worked on the most?
The top firm has worked on almost one-fifth of the 100 tallest buildings in the world.
High-rise Construction | Oct 25, 2016
That sinking feeling: Millennium Tower San Francisco is beginning to worry residents with its sinking, leaning [Updated]
Residents are beginning to question if the tower, which exists in a major earthquake fault zone, is safe.
High-rise Construction | Oct 21, 2016
The world’s 100 tallest buildings: Which architects have designed the most?
Two firms stand well above the others when it comes to the number of tall buildings they have designed.
High-rise Construction | Oct 14, 2016
Perkins+Will-designed residential towers would transform the Seattle skyline
The towers thrive on ‘creative tension’ and lean farther away from each other the higher they climb.
Wood | Oct 13, 2016
Concept from Perkins+Will could become the world’s tallest timber tower
River Beech Tower is said to be a part of a masterplan along the Chicago River.
Resiliency | Oct 5, 2016
San Francisco’s 181 Fremont will become the most earthquake-resilient building on the West Coast
The building has achieved REDi Gold Rating, resilience-based design guidelines developed by Arup that establish a new benchmark for seismic construction.