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New Broadcast Tower to Employ Ancient Pagoda Technology

2008/04/30

A new broadcast tower in Tokyo that will become the world’s tallest structure when completed in fiscal 2011 will draw on quake-resistant technology used in building five-story pagodas more than a thousand years ago. Construction of the “New Tokyo Tower,” as the structure is being dubbed, will coincide with the complete switchover to terrestrial digital broadcasting in Japan in 2011.

An artist’s conception of the new broadcast tower, as seem from the Sumida River.The Great Hanshin (Kobe) Earthquake in 1995 prompted a search for quake-resistant technologies, leading to the rediscovery of ancient architectural techniques like those used to build pagodas. The new tower, which will be 610 meters tall, was designed by architect Tadao Ando and sculptor Kiichi Sumikawa. It will consist of a core column of reinforced concrete, linked in wickerwork fashion to steel beams via shock-absorbing dampers.

Such techniques have been used in Japan for more than a thousand years to build five-story pagodas like that at the temple Horyu-ji. Historical research reveals that none of these pagodas has ever collapsed from an earthquake.

Naoto Kawai, who has been researching the quakeproof properties of wooden pagodas, believes that their flexibility, resulting from a puzzle-like, multilayered wooden structure centered on a core pillar, cushions the speed of a tremor. The new broadcast tower will recreate this quake-dampening feature using the latest technology.

An artist’s conception of the new broadcast tower, as seem from the Sumida River.
(C) TOBU RAILWAY CO., LTD & SHIN-TOKYO TOWER CO., LTD.

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