Japan’s revolutionary new way of demolishing buildings
January 15, 2013 16
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If you’ve ever been to Japan, heck, seen pictures of Japan, you’ll know that it can be pretty crowded over there. There can be a ridiculous amount of people in very small areas. With a city so densely populated, what do you do when over 100 skyscrapers have to be demolished in the next 10 years? It looks like Japan’s got it covered.
Taisei Corp. has spent a year and half developing a revolutionary way of demolishing buildings in the most ecological way possible. They’re calling it the Taisei Ecological Reproduction System, or Tecorep for short. The concept behind the method is using the roof of the building as a sort of hat that creates an enclosed space for deconstruction. Temporary columns hold up the roof and are lowered by jacks as floors are removed.
“It’s kind of like having a disassembly factory on top of the building and putting a big hat there, and then the building shrinks from the top,” said a representative of the company. Not only is it safer for workers but it reduces noise by over 25%, cuts dust by as much as 90%, and is more energy efficient.
For a closer look at how it’s done, check out the video below:
[via Spoon & Tamago]
About the author: Enrique View all posts by Enrique
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Impressive.
“This video is Private”
Missed it (the video is now “private”). Geeeesh.
If someone runs across a copy of this video that is not (yet) private, please ping me.
@greg: @Tom: @AFPhys: Hey everybody! Sorry about that. Here’s another video, it’s a time lapse of the deconstruction. I’ll change the video in the article as well :)
http://youtu.be/WbzVfLWQNkA
Wow, innovative and unbelievable. The time lapse works great. Thanks..
@Enrique:
Thanks. Works now.
I was hoping to see more detail as to how they accomplished this, but such is life…
It is like Pacman eating buildings from the top. Extremely cool.
Thanks Enrique!
Wonder what Apple patent that this contravenes?
What an interesting concept–I wonder if this ever would become a standard, for ecologically-wise (de)construction?
@Mike: Whe I first saw the photos at the top, I thought that the ‘cap’ was part of the building. I thought it looked OK, so perhaps they could use the cap for the construction part and when at required height, incorporate it into the building. Then it would be ready for the time when the building has to come down.
It might help construction, because ‘floors’ could be made weather proof quicker allowing fitting out and possibly occupation sooner.
@AFPhys: Yeah, I believe there were more details in the vid that went private. Don’t know why they had to do that, lame. Haha.
@Ashraf: Sure thing! Really cool indeed.
@Mike: That would depend on what you define as eco-friendly. Due to lack of stringent standards explicitly defining what can be regarded as ecologically friendly, keep in mind companies often take part in ‘green washing’ — claims of something being environmentally friendly when other people or organizations may not consider it to be. It is all a mater of perspective.
seems it will take much longer than demolishing buildings with explosives.
According to Wired (http://www.wired.com/design/2013/01/japan-building-demolition/) they are generating electricity to power other demolition equipment with the crane used to lower the concrete and steel that has been removed, thus reducing the carbon emissions some 85%.
“I was hoping to see more detail as to how they accomplished this, but such is life…”
@Mike:
The problem could be someone finding a way of outsourcing it to the Chinese for a fraction of the cost, and tenfold the pollution.