Less than an hour by train from central Tokyo, on a narrow tree-lined street hemmed with convenience stores, a ramen shop and a hostess club, stands a building unlike any other in Japan. The structure is a fully wooden-framed, fire-resistant high-rise.
Port Plus is a training and education facility in Yokohama built by and for general contractor Obayashi, a storied Japanese builder that traces its roots back to 1892. The firm has constructed some of the country¡¯s most iconic structures, including Tokyo Station, dating to 1914, and the Kenzo Tange-designed Yoyogi National Stadium 2nd Gymnasium, completed in the 1960s.
But Port Plus ¡ª which was finished last year and is composed mainly of 540 wooden rigid cross-joints that are 2.8 meters wide and 4 meters tall ¡ª may be its most ambitious. The structure offers a pivot away from the carbon-intensive building materials like steel and cement that dominated Japan¡¯s postwar landscape and offers a new path for modern mass-timber construction in a country where, for centuries, wood has played a central role in temples, homes and workspaces.
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