Lungs for Tokyo
The W350 project is a £4.2 billion ($5.9 billion) wooden skyscraper set to be built in Tokyo, Japan. At 1,148 feet (350 meters) tall, the tower will be both the tallest building in Japan and the highest wooden structure in the world when it opens in 2041.
Designs for the structure were drawn up by Tokyo-based architectural firm Nikken Sikkei, but the building will be constructed by the Forestry arm of the Sumitomo Group, one of Japan’s largest business conglomerates.
As well as offices, a hotel, shops and residential units, the tower will feature a garden roof, balconies covered with greenery, water features and large internal open spaces filled with natural light.
With 70 stories above ground, it will be made of a combination of wood and steel, with more than 6.5 million cubic feet (0.2 million cubic meters) of wood making up 90 percent of the construction material.
It is not yet clear what type of wood will be used in construction of the building, though most large wooden structures today use cross-laminated timber, an engineered wood system with the strength and stability of steel.
The aim of the structure is to turn the Japanese capital into an environment-friendly city and help ‘transform the town into a forest’, according to the architects behind the plans.
Nikken Sekkei