Mitsui Fudosan and Takenaka Corporation has commenced plans to develop a 70 metres high timber building in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district. The 17 storey building when completed will be among the tallest timber buildings in Japan.
The interest in multi-storey timber buildings has increased around the world. Timber building materials cause considerably lower climate change impact compared to materials like steel and concrete. Moreover, modern engineered timber products provides opportunities to build high. In the last decade, 6 storeys timber buildings and higher have been constructed around the world, and engineers have begun to look at the possibility of building much taller with timber.
Construction of the timber high rise building in Tokyo is tentatively scheduled to start in the year 2023 with a possible completion date of 2025. The building’s floor area would be 26,000 square meters and will be constructed from 1,000 cubic meters of domestic lumber. The main structure would be a hybrid that incorporates Takenaka’s fire-resistant laminated wood with materials sourced from Mitsui-owned forestry in Hokkaido. Carbon dioxide emissions would be 20 percent less than those when construction a standard steel-frame office building of the same size and scale.
Mitsui Fudosan Group owns approximately 5,000 hectares of forestry in Hokkaido, all of which has been certified by the Sustainable Green Ecosystem Council.
