world news
22-storey IBM Building in Tokyo
Construction work has just started on a 22- storey building in the heart of Tokyo which will become the headquarters of IBM (Japan). To be completed in December next year, it will have a total floor area of 36,700 sq. metres.
A feature of the building will be the location of elevators, staircases and machinery rooms on both ends of the rectangular structure, leaving in the centre of each floor a 1,000 sq. metre space with- out pillars. Apart from giving a flexible layout of office rooms, this will enable the occupants to es- cape to either side of the building without confu- sion in an emergency.
The building will have a flat roof without a penthouse for a better overall appearance when viewed from adjacent high-rise buildings. Air-
for computer operations. On the two basement floors will be a post office, warehouses, printing shops and machinery rooms.
Slipformed towers at nuclear station
Six box-structure reinforced concrete towers, measuring 28ft. by 24ft. and 220ft. high, form the main structural elements of the reactor building at a nuclear power station being built at Hartlepool, UK. With walls 18in. thick, the towers stand on
Model of IBM Building, Tokyo
conditioning equipment and machine rooms, usual- ly at roof level, will be housed in the 22nd. floor. First and second floors will have a lobby, de- monstration rooms and other facilities for public use, with the third, fourth and fifth floors set aside
Structural towers for Hartlepool nuclear station
thick concrete rafts. Each was erected in a con- tinuous slipforming operation lasting only eight days.
The towers are used to supply a foundation for reactor crane rails and to support the roof trusses. Some will also provide permanent lift shafts for the station. The roof is then erected very quickly to give early weatherproof working conditions for building the reactors.
The work is being carried out by Taylor Wood- row Construction Ltd., civil engineering member of British Nuclear Design & Construction Ltd., main contractors to the Central Electricity Generating Board for the £92 million project.
Israelis develop rigid foam prefab.
A new type of pre-fabricated building based on rigid foam has been developed by Israeli engineers as an inexpensive mobile housing unit for out of the way locations.
Polyurethane foam is used in a new form of sand- wich panelling which provides a number of advan- tages in terms of insulation, maintenance, appear- ance, structural stability and economy. With only a
Far East BUILDER, July 1970
7