@Sussudio: It takes an immense amount of time and planning to decide how to wire a building for demolition. I'm guessing this is figured into the total amount of time for demolition vs. floor-by-floor melting.

Killjoy

@Sussudio: Possibly they mean it's faster than the normal way of demolishing buildings in areas where big explosions and/or machinery that needs a lot of space to work, like wrecking balls/cranes can't be used.

The building in the video looks to be in a pretty tightly packed urban area, and I don't think they blow up buildings when there are buildings they don't want to damage mere feet away.

I would also have thought that this type of system would be dependant on how the original building was designed.

I think the ultimate way of doing this would be to put a bunch of supports under the building foundations, then dig out a cavern the exact size and shape of the building above, then blow the supports so that the whole thing just drops into the cavern.

Practical? No, but golly it would be fun to watch :)

MartinX

"The process is called daruma-otoshi after a japanese game that makes players take the bottom parts of a column-using a hammer-without disturbing the rest of the parts above."

I guess that watching inane TV is starting to pay off for me. Having seen Unbeatable Bansuki, I actually understand this reference/description.

Mooby

@ninjagin:
I'd guess they bring the columns back up as they pull out the originals.

ConstyXIV

I must try this at my next Jenga tournament!

deadrobot

this would make for an amazing practical joke.

froggy

@venomous_duck41: Maybe the new phrase will be "PFFFTT!" as the columns lower

draconis1492

@venomous_duck41: Could always play a pre-recorded one... :-)

Harlan

@Apoc112: doesn't seem any riskier than imploding the building. That could also go awry, eh?

Harlan

@Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy: Don't encourage them!

ideaman2020

I can hear the weeping of explosive makers now... In fact I'm crying with them. I love seeing buildings blow up. The fact that this is good for the environment, and business makes me happy though.

hagrun

@Xavoc: Not to mention the long planning stage for laying out explosives to orchestrate an accurate implosion. With this kind of demolition, you just need to replicate the existing structural support -- already laid out in the blueprints -- with the mechanical columns. The actual hand demolition can be easily ported between (almost) any sort of building design.

@Apoc112: I'm sure Japan is pretty good at this sort of thing. They've got experience with the GCans project:
[www.megabunny.com]

@future-proof: Dangerous, yes, but better to hurry up and demolish old non-earthquake-proof buildings before one -does- hit.

terebakashi

Think about how much damn time you have to spend AFTER you blow the thing up until you can actually build in the space again. Thats why 20% more fastest better it do.

No BoomBlox references?

atuck

amazing what free labor can do

heroineworshipper

@Curves: that is pretty cool...although I agree it is still always more fun to watch them implode.

dandaman247

@Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy: By "they", I hope you are referring to the League of Women Voters and their chupicabra servants. Because they did it just like this.

dry-roasted-peanuts

@macserv: The original colums are sunk in the ground a pretty good distance so i imagine they would remove them to a certain point then rest the mechanical colums on top of those and decend untill the floor is on the foundation.

venomous_duck41

They need to have a time lapse of the whole building coming down.

Joseph

@Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy:

This is how they did the trade centers, and they played it on TV speeded up.

Puck

but i wanted a 'BOOM' :(

venomous_duck41

So this is basically the "Jenga" method of demolition.

Don't want to see what happens if they screw up, though!

gambrinus2

Since they're just putting the whole building on temporary support they really need to pray for no earthquake or severe storm... that could really knock the whole thing down methinks.

future-proof

I'm just waiting for someone to say this is how they did the trade centers, and they played it on TV speeded up.

Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy

Nifty shifty

Viva La Volvo

This is how old terrorists do 9/11 from their nursing home beds.

NNTPgrip

That is just great. Anything to keep the crap from those buildings spreading through the air.

dirtybird1977

Wonder what kind of fail-safes are in place if one of the mechanical columns should falter.

Oops, sorry surrounding metropolis. Our bad.

Apoc112

Woahhh

dcmidnight

I gotta say, that's pretty neat. How do they get the pillars in to support the next floor to be dismantled, I wonder?

ninjagin

@Sussudio: Well, the demo includes breaking up the remaining bits to fit into trucks, hauling the debris off. Demo work isn't complete until the entire facility is gone.

Xavoc

Where do the replacement columns go?

macserv

Amazing and fabulous if it decreases the enviro impact, but the closeted pyro part of me is going to miss when they just BLOW THEM UP. The implosions are the coolest.

Curves

But does it work in reverse if you push the up button?

Xavoc

I am confused on the time saving part. Perhaps the complete total amount of time from demo to recycling is quicker, but I am not convinced that the actual demolition is faster than using explosives.

Sussudio

This must take an amazing amount of time & extremely costly. However probably the only option for some buildings very close to each other in major metro areas.

AllThingsWireless

wow. leveling a building one floor at a time is 20% FASTER than blowing the whole thing up?

seriously, leave it to the japanese to find something that can destroy a building faster than a bunch of bombs.

willyolio

Now let's see the time lapse of the whole thing shrinking from a good distance. That would be fun.

I_Sell_TVs

If you're going to tear it down floor-by-floor, couldn't you save even more time by just starting at the top and working your way down?

RaymondoMagnifico

@MartinX: Implosions are done all the time in areas where buildings are mere feet away. Well, not all the time, but they're done.

@qbrad: To be fair to at least PART of your post, this technique is obviously very new and not widely used yet so you can't blame anyone for not using it.

bobman1235

@qbrad

It's all a conspiracy for our government to kill all animals and plants. Because that's in everyone's best interest.

mathdino

@dry-roasted-peanuts: "League of Women Voters and their chupicabra servants"? I am failing to see the connection....help me out here.

Curves

@willyolio:
It's not like a demo crew bomb out the building they're working on. They first have to go into the building and strip off all supports save for the bare minimum to hold the building up, then carefully plan the demolition so that the debris falls into a nice little pile, place and wire the explosives, and then set a time to tear it all down with the blast. Once the building falls in on itself, they bring in heavy machinery to take all the debris away from the site and off to be sorted for recycling and disposal. It's actually fairly easy to see how this method would be a faster and cleaner means of demolition than explosives.

DisposableInterloper

This is waaaayyy cool. That's all I can really say.

StarControl

So I guess this technique isn't being used to remove the Deustche Bank building at ground zero because it's TOO practical? Or maybe it's becaause so many people have lined their pockets with WTC money since 9/11 that they're completely over budget for the entire site?

I love that we were supposed to have a "Freedom Tower" by 2006 and the girders are only being put up now - with an expected completion date of "by the next war we start" since it will always be over budget.

Can't get buildings up cleanly, can't get em down cleanly. I love the apathy of this nation! LOVE IT!

qbrad

Now about reversing the process to construct a building? Now that would be somethin'!

The Cooler

@Killjoy: @MartinX:

I fail to see how doing this method wouldn't also take "an immense amount of time and planning," this isn't Jenga.

Sussudio

Wow, this is much safer than Godzilla wrecking the place.

anfauglir

@Curves: Don't worry, this method won't work on every type of construction. There will still be BOOMS.

EBone

@macserv: same place dogs go, silly. To heaven!

zenpoet

What happened to all the fun, though? Are people really going to drag their families and ice coolers out on a Saturday to watch this?

The Brain

How would Alfred Nobel feel about this? Would he give them some sort of "prize", possibly involving a large monetary sum for their ingenuity, or would he feel ripped off? I mean, the guy invented Dynamite, after all.

DeusExMach

@Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy: wasn't funny man

kevman90

To those who say: well what if one of the mechanical pillars fails, there's always a chance of failure. What if one of the charges used in implosion demolition fails? There's always risks. In either case, a major earthquake would probably require a thorough inspection of the building before demolition continues.

dizzytired

Of course one can use the reverse process of construction to demolish a building from the top down lowering the bits by crane but keep in mind that a LOT of what went up there was wet concrete, often pumped rather than lifted up, it's much tougher to break up and dispose of reinforced concrete than it is to pour the stuff, not impossible by any stretch but a pain.

I don't think that they can practically use this technique for every building method, in fact I don't think you can really do this with a central core/curtain wall skyscraper or with the stiffened tubes approach used for the WTC/Sears Tower.

bytepusher

that is very cool

zed0

Purple Dave: I'm guessing that if the technology exists to get things up to the top of a building under construction, it could be employed similarly to get things down from a building being demolished, no?

RaymondoMagnifico

@terebakashi:
I dunno. I think I'd be less concerned about half a building still being in place when an earthquake hits than one that's all hollowed out and wired for implosion. Worst that will happen with the first one is that it topples over (which is always some sort of risk with tall buildings and earthquakes). With the latter, it could topple over and then blow up.

@RaymondoMagnifico:
Theoretically, yes, if you can find a way to get the dump trucks to the top floor. Otherwise, some poor sap has to catch all the chunks when you drop them from 20 floors up.

Purple Dave

@RaymondoMagnifico: Risk abatement slows that process down quite a bit. When you're always working on the ground floor, there's less risk of squishing people.

Gann

Starting at the bottom means gravity is on YOUR side. Shit won't fly off the top by accident ... though I'd be interested to see what happens if one of those columns were to fail.

MastaFalse

@Sussudio:
Standard demolition would include the time required to secure the area (boarding over any windows facing the doomed building, blocking off the area once explosives are involved, etc.), the time required to inspect, design, and install the explosive charges, the fairly short amount of time required to pop the building, the time required to clean up the huge mess it caused when it went down, and the time required to remove all the protectionary plywood that you covered all those windows with. Yeah, the building ceases to be a recognizable structure a lot faster, but the overall process takes a _long_ time.

Purple Dave

@Sussudio: Probably because when using explosives you first have to devise a plan for where to lay the explosives, then place them, then wire all the explosives, then do several check throughs to make sure everything is set up right and the bombs will go off in the right order at the right time. You can't just throw some bombs in a building and expect it to fall down neatly, there is a lot of planning and time that goes into it.

fogel1492

For those of you who don't understand how this is faster, you need to remember that in normal demolition, a company needs to place the explosives in the positions where it will do damage, but not damage the surrounding areas. They don't just put a load of TNT inside and hope for the best. Usually it begins with talking to the building planners while trying to get the blueprints for the building. Afterwards, they need to go level by level drilling into walls to get to the support structures that they need to break down. This takes a long time, especially on a buildings that has more than five floors to it.

It's really saving time to remove one floor slowly, depress it, and remove the next. It may sound longer, but most videos of demolitions ignore the planning phase that wastes time.

Glitchesarecool

aww man so how do they get the pillars out from under??? through the basement??? im confused because if they remove it then how do they put em in??? this is a dilemma.

SneakerFiend

@Curves: The League of Women Voters teamed up with a bunch of chupicabra to pull off 9/11. The LWV told the chupicabra that there was giant vault under the WTC that housed all the Illuminati's world war 3 goat reserve, so the chupicabra used their super speed to quickly demolish the WTC one floor at a time (that's the pancaking you hear about). They used gigantic mirrors to simulate an airplane crash in order to distract the public from their actions. There are reports all over the internet of strange sucking noises heard in NYC immediately after the towers were demolished. This was all phase 2 of the LWV's plan to systematically destroy all symbols of masculinity in the world. Why else would they fire their orbital airplane cannon into the Pentagon if not to symbolically show the failure of penis (airplane) when matched against the vagina (Pentagon)?

dry-roasted-peanuts

I don't know if I am missing something, or this is pointed out already. But the video is looped. Clearly diplayed by tracks on the ground to the right of the building and location of workers comparing begining and the towards the end of clip. It would be neat to actually see a process continue more than just the first floor repeated

grandintro

@NNTPgrip: Or the young, hippy-dippy green terrorists.

@Xavoc & The Cooler: Actually, I think it coud be applied, in a way. It could make cranes (which NY City keeps knocking over) less common.

@Curves: Ditto! I love the big boom (one of my favorite episodes of Myth Busters is of them blowing up the cement truck), but helping the environment is good too.

hnkelley

@dry-roasted-peanuts: Ohhh, THAT "League of Women Voters and their chupicabra servants", how stupid of me to forget.

(Wanders off mumbling something about the freaks and nutcases on line....)

Curves

@G for GRENADE: Wow way to be tasteless *handclap*

Diablo1616

You could always fly a plane into it..

G for GRENADE

This is going to make the next Ocean's Eleven movie (14) a lot more boring.

DeadWriter

interesting. But is it really that much better?

elephantattack

@kevman90: yeah it was.

yesthisisapc

@Curves: Well, I figure if you are going to have a 9/11 conspiracy, you might as well be creative.

dry-roasted-peanuts

I have actually seen a building being BUILT using this method here in Tokyo...it was an amazing site watching it rise daily

LoudLight17

@future-proof & terebakashi:
According to the Kajima site they have an early warning earthquake system connected to all the telescopic jacks to lock down in the even of an earthquake. Also the way the jack is constructed around supporting beams prevents horizontal motion (wind) from impacting the process.

... well if google translator is to be believed :) page link

fraktion

@RaymondoMagnifico:
Yeah, but consider how long it takes to construct a building. Not to mention the fact that concrete is much less predictable when you're busting it up than when you're pouring it.

@DeusExMach:
Considering he founded the prize to not be remembered as "the TNT guy", and he's dead so he's not making one red cent off of TNT sales, I'd guess he'd be pretty happy. Besides, there's no reason why TNT would _have_ to be used in an explosive demolition. It's no longer the only explosive in town.

@dry-roasted-peanuts:
No folded dollar bills for you, huh?

Purple Dave

@NNTPgrip: yeah you're not funny

Nemesisesq

@Sussudio: you can't just look at things in terms of demolition the more time debris is on the work site the more money it costs and the longer it will take to redevelop the site which also coses money this process is 20% faster and probably lots cheaper becasue theres no permits or insurance needed for the used of explosives this process is a great advancement in building technology.

Nemesisesq

@Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy: "this is how they did the trade centers, and they played it on TV speeded up."

More ludicrous things have been said. Never overestimate the tin-foil hat crowd.

@Purple Dave: "With the latter, it could topple over and then blow up."

THAT I want to see!

@RaymondoMagnifico: "it could be employed similarly to get things down from a building being demolished, no?"

But why?

@kevman90: "wasn't funny man"

Yeah, it kind of was. Unless you're one of the loonie-toons that think the Bush administration planned 9/11 and that Dick Cheney personally planted the explosives to bring the towers down. Oh, you are...oops...sorry.

@SneakerFiend: "this is a dilemma."

No, it's not. Ya think maybe they've got two sets of pillars?

@dry-roasted-peanuts: "Well, I figure if you are going to have a 9/11 conspiracy, you might as well be creative."

That made as much sense as most.

GadgetPlay

could they *build* using the same method?

mm1234

@GadgetPlay:
And for the Monty Python crowd, if the skyscraper is appropriately placed, it could topple over, sink into a swamp, and _then_ explode.

Purple Dave

Great stuff!
Only it probably costs a lot more.
Still, it probably is very worth the money depending on WHERE the building is. Loved it!

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

Tokyo-3 here we come!

atomicafro