Tokyo hotel shrinks in new-style urban demolition, floor by floor - Polidicks

[IMG]http://media.zenfs.com/en-SG/video/video.afptv.com/MMV494498_TEN.jpg[/IMG] [QUOTE]Passers-by in Tokyo's busy Akasaka district have started to notice something odd about a 40-floor hotel -- it has shrunk to about half its original height.Slowly but surely, and with none of the explosions or dust normally associated with the demolition of skyscrapers, the hotel is being torn down. "In this demolition scheme, the building shrinks and disappears without you noticing," said Hideki Ichihara, manager of Taisei Corp., the construction firm running the project. The Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka was built in the 1980s, a gleaming 140-metre (460 feet) symbol of a decade of extravagance when people almost had money to burn and Japan's red-hot economy powered the world. Now it is shrinking: losing two floors, or 6.4 metres, every 10 days, said Ichihara. The Japanese-developed Taisei Ecological Reproduction System (TECOREP) is a new process designed to contain the noise and dirt of a demolition, and recycle the energy pent up in a tall building. Engineers reinforced the top floor with steel beams and then effectively lopped it off, keeping it in place to be used as an adjustable lid that can be lowered down the building on an external support frame. Workers at the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka have brought in 15 hydraulic jacks on which this "lid" now sits as they remove one floor at a time, carefully breaking apart the once-luxurious guest rooms. The materials are separated and, where possible, recycled. "By keeping this cap on top of the building, we can contain the noise and the dust significantly," Ichihara said. "Dust pollution is cut by more than 90 percent, keeping the environmental impact very small."[/QUOTE] [url]http://sg.news.yahoo.com/tokyo-hotel-shrinks-style-urban-demolition-101017452.html[/url] Video in source

Pretty innovative way of demolishing a building. I'd imagine it'd be a lot more expensive than just imploding the building though. I guess the environmental benefit of being able to recycle all of that metal and glass makes more sense. I wonder if it will develop into something where building owners that have too many open floors can reduce the size of their building to save money :v:

Quite an interesting process, very useful in cramped cities. Not quite as awesome as outright imploding it though.

I saw something about this a few days ago, and a few things sprung to mind. It's advertised as being quiet. Who cares? Tell people that you are blowing up a building on x date, and be done with it. That just doesn't seem like such a big deal. I don't see how this is cheap. Maybe there are options to recycle materials or something, but it seems astronomically expensive to do, purely from the cost of labor, let alone anything else. EDIT: I mean, I see legitimate uses, especially in super cramped areas, but there were a couple things that made me scratch my head.

controlled demolition, wake up

I guess it has it's bonuses though; creates jobs and recycles unused materials. And I guess lowers the impact of disruption to both the surrounding area and traffic / public transport that flows through that area.

Brilliant. Hope the rest of the world catches up with this new method.

I thought it was about that teen-emo band. Boy would that be a weird thing to see

Why is it being demolished?

[QUOTE=UnknownDude;39770416]Why is it being demolished?[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Faced with a tougher competition in the past decade after the western luxury hotels such as the Grand Hyatt Tokyo and Conrad Tokyo entered the market, the hotel had struggled with fewer customers given its outdated décor: it still uses real room keys instead of card keys. Since the building is aging and requires huge renovations, the hotel chain decided last year that the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka would close at the end of March.[/QUOTE]

Was expecting these guys being involed in the typical "rockstar-ruins-hotel-room". Dunno why. [img]https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSFOczZEIc5wHJ-D5_nxQMK0-gIavtpdmdbSizN3vUA_RLiHFywmg[/img]

I thought the band was coming back with an urban look, and then got very confused with the "floor by floor" thing.

[QUOTE=dass;39771471]I thought the band was coming back with an urban look, and then got very confused with the "floor by floor" thing.[/QUOTE] Well they technically do have a new look [img]http://www.mytokiohotel.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/tokio-hotel-album-2012.jpg[/img] [editline]2nd March 2013[/editline] except the 2 guys that arent the twins. People dont even care enough about them to get their looks changed

[QUOTE=D3TBS;39771884]Well they technically do have a new look [img]http://www.mytokiohotel.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/tokio-hotel-album-2012.jpg[/img] [editline]2nd March 2013[/editline] except the 2 guys that arent the twins. People dont even care enough about them to get their looks changed[/QUOTE] Well my pest control company didn't have work for some time...

[QUOTE=D3TBS;39771884]Well they technically do have a new look [img]http://www.mytokiohotel.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/tokio-hotel-album-2012.jpg[/img] [editline]2nd March 2013[/editline] except the 2 guys that arent the twins. People dont even care enough about them to get their looks changed[/QUOTE] Is that a chick or a dude?

[QUOTE=lapsus_;39769924]Brilliant. Hope the rest of the world catches up with this new method.[/QUOTE] Bet it's a lot harder to pull off with massive brick or concrete structures.

[QUOTE=D3TBS;39771884]Well they technically do have a new look [img]http://www.mytokiohotel.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/tokio-hotel-album-2012.jpg[/img] [editline]2nd March 2013[/editline] except the 2 guys that arent the twins. People dont even care enough about them to get their looks changed[/QUOTE] I thought Tokyo Hotel had only guys?

[QUOTE=Derp Y. Mail;39771175] [img]https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSFOczZEIc5wHJ-D5_nxQMK0-gIavtpdmdbSizN3vUA_RLiHFywmg[/img][/QUOTE] hey look they took off the top and the bottom is disappearing [editline]3rd March 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Ryukrawr?;39775450]Is that a chick or a dude?[/QUOTE] you bet

At first I thought "demolition" was being used jokingly, and they were just painting it blue to make it blend in with the sky.