Teijin Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) announced on September 25 that it will build the world's first advanced fiber-reinforced wood (AFRW) building, a structural wood product that includes multi-size wood and Structural adhesive bonded high performance fibers. Teijin first developed high-tenacity aramid fibers and high-hardness carbon fibers and hybrid materials using these fibers in 2015.
The new building will be built at the Teijin Tokyo Research Center in Hino, using a warm texture and AFRW's unique wood composition to help create a stress-free environment. It also aims to maximize the use of natural light by avoiding the use of pillars to make the interior space more open and comfortable.
The project was approved by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT, Tokyo, Japan) in May and construction will begin in October. Technical support will be provided by professional construction companies Maeda Corporation (Tokyo, Japan) and Kochi University Structural Engineering Laboratory (Kochi, Japan). . After the building is completed, Teijin and Maeda will monitor AFRW's adhesive stability and vibration durability for seven consecutive years.
Following the completion of this first building and the preliminary monitoring phase, Teijin will continue to develop AFRW technology. The development of sustainable buildings aimed at building safe, comfortable, earthquake-resistant wooden buildings and using wood as a sustainable resource for carbon dioxide absorption. The company expects that new technologies and materials will be deployed in general buildings around 2020.