The Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka, built in the 70s, is one of the most emblematic buildings in the Akasaka district.
At the beginning of 2011 it was closed down in order to be demolished, but the Tohoku earthquake changed the plans and the hotel reopened to host the victims that lost their houses during the tsunami.
A little bit over a year after, Taisei is in charge of continuing with the demolition plans using a novel technique that they have developed: they dismantle the building from the inside. It looks like the trick is to leave the top floors intact until the end as if they were a “hat”. The top floors are maintained with temporary columns while the lower floors are eliminated. It is difficult to explain, better watch the timelapse video:
The advantage of this method is that it is safer than other demolition methods and is less noisy. Taisei plans to use this method from now on to demolish buildings that are over 100 meters tall.
In the plot of land left by the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka, Seibu Holding plans to build a brand new hotel next year.
Via: Aol.com
