Wooden tower reflects Sir Bob's comment

An artist's impression of Sumitomo Forestry's proposed Tokyo 70-storey wooden tower. Photo / Supplied

A Japanese forestry company is planning to build the world's tallest wooden skyscraper, to mark its 350th anniversary in 2041.

Last August New Zealand property investor Sir Bob Jones announced plans for a 12-storey wooden office building in central Wellington, at that point the highest of its type in the world.

He told Radio New Zealand at the time that he was baffled as to why more developers haven't looked at laminated wood, particularly in the Christchurch rebuild.

"There's such a very good rationale for it … but they will [look at l] from now, these things are contagious. But it's interesting; it should have been done sooner."

Sumitomo Forestry says just 10 per cent of its planned 70-storey W350 tower would be steel, combined with about 180,000 cubic metres of indigenous wood (enough to build about 8000 homes), plus trees and foliage on balconies at every level.

A "braced tube structure", diagonal steel vibration-control braces at the centre of a 350m wood and steel column, would protect against Tokyo's regular earthquakes.

The projected cost of the building would be about 600 billion yen (almost NZ$8b) — or about twice the cost of a conventional skyscraper of the same size. But Sumitomo says it expects costs to fall before completion due to technological breakthroughs.

The proposed skyscraper would use about 180,000 cubic metres of indigenous wood. Photo / Supplied

A 53m block of student flats in Vancouver is currently the world's tallest wooden skyscraper, The Guardian reports.

The W350 tower will apparently be used for offices, shops, hotels and homes.