• Journal of architectural history
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.35-44
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• 2012

This paper aimed at investigating into the origin and meaning of the Japanese architect Terunobu Fujimori's 'piercing column', and drew a conclusion as follows. First, the piercing column that made its first appearance in his architect debut work Jinchokan Moriya Historical Museum (1991) was conceived unexpectedly from pencil lines on a sketch that went through over the building's roof. And the tree-like natural treatment of the column's surface was influenced by Takamasa Yoshizaka's description of a Mongolian mud-house. Second, most of piercing columns in his later works have nothing to do with a structural role as in Jinchokan, but were designed for a visual effect and as a symbolic gesture. Again, they allude to a tree in nature through a roughly peeling treatment of the surface. Third, considering his ideas in History of Humankind and Architecture (2005), his column could be related to a universal origin of architecture and a symbol of the sun-god faith, and in particular to independent columns of Japanese Shito shrines, such as 'Onbashira' in Suwa and 'Iwanebashira' in Izumo. That is to say, the Fujimori column is a medium that implies the animistic nature-faith of Japan. Nevertheless, Fujimori's naturalism hints at a disquieting quality through an intentional artificiality and a provocative conflict between structure and finish of a building, which might be one aspect of the modern condition, 'uncanny'.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2014

When seismic isolation system is applied to high aspect-ratio (height/wide-ratio) steel structures, there are several problems to be taken into consideration. One is lifting up tensile force on the isolation bearing by overturning moment caused by earthquake. Another is securing building stiffness to produce seismic isolation effects. Under these conditions, this paper reports the structural design of high-rise research building in the campus of Tokyo Institute of Technology. With the stepping-up system for the corner bearings, the narrow sides of single span framework are designed to concentrate the dead load as counter-weight for the tensile reaction under earthquake. Also we adopted concrete in-filled steel column and Mega-Bracing system covering four layers on north & south framework to secure the horizontal stiffness of the building.