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How To Demolish A Skyscraper One Floor At A Time

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demolish building

What you are going to see in this post, is one of those rare things in life that leaves you truly speechless, and one more reason to say that technology in these days has no limits. When it comes to tearing down buildings, I’m pretty sure that you think at an implosion ( BTW – here is a cool one ), but today you’ll see a new demolition method that starts on the bottom floor. The process is called daruma-otoshi after a Japanese game that makes players take the bottom parts of a column using a hammer without disturbing the rest of the parts above.

Japanese construction firm Kajima Corporation is using this innovative new skyscraper demolition method to dismantle a pair of old company buildings in Tokyo. Compared to blowing it up, this method saves time and space, pollutes the air less, makes material recycling easier, I think that in big cities this method would be very useful and it’s obviously a lot less dusty than a traditional demo.

How do they do it ?

First they replace the support pillars at ground level with computer-controlled metal columns. Then, a crew carefully demolishes the entire floor by hand, leaving the structure resting on the mechanical pillars, which then go down slowly until the next floor is at ground level. They replace the support pillars again with the mechanical ones, destroy that floor, and repeat the operation until they get rid of all the floors.

This makes it look as if the building is shrinking in front of you, or being swallowed by the street. According to the company, this method greatly reduces the environmental impact of the demolition, as well as the time. Kajima says that it speeds up the task by 20%, while making it easier to separate materials for recycling, as well as reducing the amount of products released into the air. – Via

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Published by Michael 18 Jul 2008 in Architecture

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19 comments:

  1. Elevyn Blog » Blog Archive » Demolishing A Skyscraper, One Floor at a Time says:
    August 1, 2009 at 2:56 pm

    [...] Credit: http://freshome.com/2008/07/18/how-to-demolish-a-skyscraper-one-floor-at-a-time/ [...]

    Reply
  2. Vlad.Nastasiu : Fără praf says:
    January 3, 2009 at 11:48 pm

    [...] Freshome Carved in Videos on July 22 [...]

    Reply
  3. MEEP says:
    October 18, 2008 at 12:03 am

    LOL why would they take down the twin towers if they didnt know they were to be attacked?\
    but on a different note its a very clean system

    Reply
  4. Jeff says:
    August 22, 2008 at 9:38 pm

    LOL not really to even think that the government’s version of events surrounding the 9/11 attacks was truthful in anyway at all would be retarded. Infact to even call someone retarded for thinking otherwise is beyond retarded. If you can’t keep up then you should just return to sleep. There is no helping you. Goodnight rLX.

    Reply
  5. ian weller » Blog Archive » Swallowing skyscrapers says:
    July 30, 2008 at 8:10 am

    [...] How to demolish a skyscraper one floor at a time. First they replace the support pillars at ground level with computer-controlled metal columns. Then, a crew carefully demolishes the entire floor by hand, leaving the structure resting on the mechanical pillars, which then go down slowly until the next floor is at ground level. They replace the support pillars again with the mechanical ones, destroy that floor, and repeat the operation until they get rid of all the floors. July 20th, 2008 – 0 comments – tags: buildings, demolition, japan [...]

    Reply
  6. Quinta do Sargaçal – “Greenwashing” é bom? + says:
    July 23, 2008 at 12:15 am

    [...] Como demolir um prédio Um andar de cada vez. Freshome. [...]

    Reply
  7. chrisdiclerico.com » Blog Archive » jenga deconstruction says:
    July 20, 2008 at 12:12 am

    [...] freshome.] posted by chris on 07/19/08 @ 8:02 pm | tags: misc, technology, [...]

    Reply
  8. rLX says:
    July 19, 2008 at 10:37 pm

    LOL not really, that would be kind of retarded, even to think about something like that is retarded.

    Reply
  9. John O'Neil says:
    July 19, 2008 at 8:05 am

    LOL if the twin towers were demolished this way,

    everyone would still believe it was terrorists.

    Reply
  10. Television Spy says:
    July 19, 2008 at 7:02 am

    That’s just amazing, the marvels of technology.

    Reply
  11. greg says:
    July 19, 2008 at 4:12 am

    Too bad the twin towers in NYC were not taken down that way on 1/9/11.
    It would have saved lots of NYers, not to mention firefighters,
    their lives and lungs!

    Reply
  12. Moving Right Along… « Crazy World of G says:
    July 19, 2008 at 3:21 am

    [...] Moving right along, as a construction geek (actually I’m a project manager), I’m always looking for better ways to make your life better through building. Demolition has always been a favorite part of the construction process for me. Before I became a project manager, I worked in the field doing just about every construction job there is. Performing demolition can be an art. My favorite demolition is crushing buildings with an excavator. I still can’t believe I got paid to do it because it’s just plain fun. On the opposite side of fun is a pavement breaker (you might call it a jackhammer). Pavement breakers are not easy to use. It’s like lifting weights for 8 hours a day. The novelty wears off fast. While searching for some worthy news to post, I came across a great innovative demolition technique. Don’t go to the building, let the building come to you. [...]

    Reply
  13. Workpost says:
    July 19, 2008 at 3:16 am

    That’s a great idea. You’d think it might take longer and
    involve more cleanup work but.. imploding a building also makes
    a mess.

    Reply
  14. HokeyWhiteBoy says:
    July 19, 2008 at 3:07 am

    That is VERY cool!

    I saw the opposite of this in Perth, Western Australia last year. It was one guy with a Front End Loader, and he started from the top floor just shoving all the crap off of the level until it was clear… then they busted up the ‘roof’ and started again on the next level. Took a while, but there was very little noise etc.

    Reply
  15. Samir says:
    July 19, 2008 at 2:30 am

    That’s awesome.

    Reply
  16. Chris says:
    July 19, 2008 at 2:07 am

    Wow… so, let me get this straight…
    Even blowing stuff up is a job that is being eliminated by
    computer-controlled machines? :o

    Reply
  17. Botaks says:
    July 19, 2008 at 1:59 am

    Also this method allows workers to work faster, because they don’t need to deal with the high elevation in the conventional method.

    Reply
  18. Shandooga says:
    July 19, 2008 at 1:21 am

    Why didn’t they just throw some jet fuel on it?

    Reply
  19. japanese cities says:
    July 18, 2008 at 2:53 pm

    [...] in these days has no limits. When it comes to tearing down buildings, I??m pretty sure that you thhttp://freshome.com/2008/07/18/how-to-demolish-a-skyscraper-one-floor-at-a-time/Japan still keen on Thailand Bangkok Post – Thailand’s English newsTOKYO : japanese investors still [...]

    Reply

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