The new mass timber project reached completion in in March after two years of construction. Port Plus is a 44-meter tall, 11-story office/hotel building constructed by Obayashi Corporation. All of the above-ground posts and beams are comprised of three layers of wood. The building is also built to withstand an earthquake producing a seismic intensity level (shindo) of 7. This is the maximum intensity in the seismic scale used by Japan’s Meteorological Agency. The wood is also coated with a water and fire-resistant coating.

Wooden buildings can result in an offset in carbon emissions compared to concrete buildings. Construction of this building has produced carbon emissions that are just a 4th of what they would have been had the building been a standard reinforced concrete build. Approximately 72% of the wood used in the construction was domestically sourced, while 26% was imported from Russia.

This project differs from the hybrid wooden and steel-frame buildings that have been popping up across Japan in recent years. Unlike a hybrid building, this one relies entirely on wood for the structural components.

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