Plans drawn up for world's tallest wooden skyscraper

Photo Credit: Sumitomo Forestry

A Japanese company is planning to build the world's tallest wooden skyscraper, to mark its 350th anniversary in 2041.

Sumitomo Forestry said 10% of the 70-storey W350 tower would be steel, combined with about 180,000 cubic metres of indigenous wood, enough to build about 8,000 homes, and trees and foliage on balconies at every level.

A "braced tube structure", diagonal steel vibration-control braces at the centre of a 350m (1,150ft) wood and steel column, would protect against Tokyo's regular earthquakes, it said.

The projected cost of the building is about 600bn yen (£4.02bn) - about twice the cost of a conventional skyscraper of the same size.

But Sumitomo said it expected costs to fall before completion due to technological breakthroughs.

A 53m block of student flats in Vancouver was currently the world's tallest wooden skyscraper, the Guardian reported.

The W350 tower would be used for offices, shops, hotels and homes.

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