Urban redevelopment: building demolition, Tokyo style
OK, so it’s not quite so dramatic as the old-fashioned controlled explosion method, but it’s infinitely more elegant and high-tech: check out this amazing time-lapse video of the Kajima Corporation’s new method of demolishing obsolete buildings in crowded Tokyo:
Unlike conventional demolition that begins at the top of the building, Kajima’s new method starts at the bottom. As each floor is demolished, the support columns are cut and replaced with giant computer-controlled jacks, which slowly lower the entire building one floor at a time. The process is repeated for each successive floor until the entire building is gone.
Maybe they’ll replace the buildings with something like these “server rack” prefab houses?
July 16th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
This is actually really impressive to watch. I also want to take this time to say how much I enjoy this little blog…I can’t exactly remember how I found it, but thanks for all the work!
July 17th, 2008 at 2:11 am
Glad you enjoyed the video, Louis - and that you enjoy Futurismic, too! It can be hard work sometimes, but it’s a lot of fun, too… and getting a comment like yours makes it all worthwhile.