Behind Tokyo's First Super Tall Skyscraper

until recently it's been too dangerous to build super tall skyscrapers in Tokyo but that's about to change I decided to take a look at the insane engineering that went into the creation of Maine Tower Tokyo's first super tall skyscraper Tokyo is full of amazing food fantastic art and incredible architecture but it appears there's yet another great reason to visit and that's the upcoming main tower the

first ever super tall skyscraper in the city now super tall isn't just describing it it's actually a specific classification it's any major building that's more than 300 meters high which translates to about 984 feet for those of us not so much on the metric system although side note super tall isn't actually the tallest type of skyscraper that designation goes to the mega tall skyscraper which is

600 meters or 1968 feet up no judgment but super tall Mega tall who named these things my 12 year old nephew anyway you might think building a huge skyscraper in one of the busiest and largest cities in the world would be no biggie but it turns out making these huge buildings safe for earthquakes is a major issue and with every new building the challenges of keeping

them up to code and the pending arrival of more earthquakes make it pretty dang hard to accomplish so let's get into this new building and why its engineering is so wild although first we should also mention the reason Tokyo is in a tough geographical spot for tall buildings in the first place and of course even before that we'll mention you should subscribe to the channel if

you haven't already Japan is in a region of the world referred to as the Pacific Ring of Fire and yes I know you've been considering that for the title of your next screenplay and I say go for it Japan in particular is a hotbed of tectonic activity AKA earthquakes it actually gets like thousands of them every year now for the most part they're small and nobody

even feels them and then many are just like slight Tremors where everybody's stops for a few seconds puts down their green tea just in case and then goes back to what they were doing but the Pacific Ring of Fire isn't called that for no reason it's an area of major seismic activity because the oceanic plates and the continental plates all meet right there and I'm not

an expert but I'm pretty sure that basically means there's always a good chance of a major earthquake you might remember one of the most recent big ones which happened in 2011 and by big I mean massive it was measured at 9.0 on the Richter scale that means it was the biggest Quake to ever hit Japan and since they started keeping track of earthquakes in 1900 it

was the fourth largest in the world it was so big it wasn't even centered in Japan instead it was off in the middle of the Pacific but it managed to shake the heck out of Japan anyway these days it's referred to as the Great East Japan earthquake or sometimes simply by its date 311. most of the damage was due to the fact that the Quake sent

a huge tsunami onto the island which hit up to six miles in Island traveling at about 435 miles per hour it destroyed thousands of buildings a bunch of evacuation sites and even triggered the Meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear plant all in there were almost 20 000 deaths with about 6 200 injured and there are still more than 2500 people missing from the incident not to mention

the economic costs which were somewhere in the range of 14.5 to 34.6 billion dollars with a beat now I didn't bring up that 2011 earthquake just to scare you I bring it up to talk about how important it is that buildings in Japan need to be earthquake resistant and since the 311 earthquake building codes have gotten a lot more stringent what's Wild is that the new

buildings aren't necessarily designed with the magnitude of earthquakes in mind according to one of the associate directors of seismic activity pretty cool job title right they focus more on acceleration and you know what I was just going to use as title but his actual name is even cooler Ziggy liubkowski love it anyway the zigster said said they take the mass of the building and then how

quickly an earthquake might accelerate towards it and that gives them the lateral load that they need the building to withstand but they've also been pretty hesitant to build giant skyscrapers in the last decade or so and it's been less economically profitable because of the strict regulations so since 2011 there have been no buildings put up that are more than 300 meters tall about 984 feet now

of course some of you guys might be experts in Japan or you've visited Tokyo since 2011. if so you're probably yelling at your screen that the famous Tokyo Sky Tree is like twice as tall as that and you're right please stop yelling I have sensitive ears and also let me be more clear the new regulations and hesitance to build has been about official skyscrapers it's not

just about structures in general so the Tokyo Skytree building which was completed in 2012 doesn't really count sure it's 634 meters tall or around 2080 feet but it's just an observation and Telecommunications Tower so there doesn't need to be the same kind of precautions taken okay now that you've stopped yelling about the Sky Tree let's move on and talk about the general Insanity of the new

main tower so when I say Insanity I'm using it as a term of endearment I don't think they are insane for building it on the contrary there's just been an insane amount of care precision and forethought that's gone into it it's actually part of a whole development they're building called the toronomon as a budai project together that encompasses the main tower and two other ones called

cleverly the East and West Towers but what they lack in naming creativity they make up for in baller construction and architecture the idea is that the project will sort of be a mini City within Tokyo it'll sit in the already busy area known as Minato which is a hub of business in the city in addition to the towers there are lots of shops and restaurants as

well as green spaces and a fully sustainable electrical grid there will even be a school and a temple within the grounds the U.S based Architecture Firm of pelly Clark and partners were the primary architects of the building with much of the retail space and the Green Space done by a world famous designer named Thomas heatherwick he's worked on buildings like the tallest ever public sculpture in

England as well as the Google headquarters not too shabby according to heatherwick he was asked to use quote intense quantities of greenery and planting making the area feel more human and open despite it being created around you know giant buildings the main tower which actually was completed in late 2022 was designed with an open floor plan on the inside because it doesn't have internal columns at

its top are glass pedals curved around the building giving it an incredibly cool look it's also unusual because it doesn't taper as it gets towards the top like most skyscrapers instead it keeps its giant floor plate going for most of the way up upon completion it immediately became the tallest building in Tokyo and and in Japan as a whole and Beyond its cool looks and availability

as a great new spot to live work and hang it's also a place specifically designed to withstand earthquakes not only that it's ideally where almost 4 000 residents will be able to flee to even if a huge earthquake hits it's designed to be so strong that the idea is people inside the city within a city will be able to literally just keep going on with normal

control that'll help make them Shake less when a quake hits and one of those sensors has an additional roll it's called the active Mass damper its positioned towards the top of the tower and it helps keep the towers from swaying in Quakes or times of high winds then they have viscous wall dampers a material's viscosity is basically how much it can absorb movement and keep its

shape and yes obviously I had to look that up so they use a special material with high viscosity keeping the building more still there are also devices called oil dampers that use the natural resistance of oil to absorb vibrations even more and then they have what are called unbonded brace dampers those are beams of Steel that are actually stretchable sorry what feels like the word steel

and stretchable are kind of the opposite but hey what do I know those dampers absorb the shaking even more the whole thing is like a science fair worth of projects all working together to make sure the buildings stay fully intact and as still as possible during a quake of course protection during a quake is great but there are always threats after a quick hits too a

big part of that is usually Interruption of the power supply to help with that there's going to be a separate backup electrical system run by what's known as cogeneration cogeneration is a special type of a system that can produce heat and electricity simultaneously and the system below the main tower will be able to fully keep all the power going in the buildings and the project area

for a full 72 hours which hopefully is enough for the power to come back on in the greater area The Architects of the project have had multiple goals in mind to create a series of incredibly safe and Incredibly tall buildings within Tokyo and to make it a place where locals can seek shelter during an emergency like an earthquake or tsunami they accomplish these goals with all

the tech we've mentioned as well as the general design that focuses on the flow of people from a Central Square outwards and the narrowness of the towers means there's a focus on Green Space and having the whole area be like super walkable okay I'm gonna go look at flight prices to Tokyo for like the 12th time this year one of these days I'm gonna get there

and hey maybe I'll go grab a meal at the main tower at the very least I'm gonna try to remember what viscosity means and use it in a conversation this week small goals you guys if you have any fun facts about skyscrapers pop them in the comments