Osaka Institute of Technology OIT Umeda Campus Building

This project was part of the commemorative activities for the centenary of Josho Gakuen. This stacked tower campus, planned as a pioneer of highrise urban campuses, has a different floor plan on every floor, a composition unique in super high-rise buildings of this scale. In the design joint venture, we handled the structure. The “Communication Void” is a large atrium space on the north side, between the 12th and 20th floors. Joining floors together, it is a place for students to rest and relax, and a place for communication beyond boundaries of subjects and academic years. Its facade composition suspends an 80 m tall curtain wall from a hat truss structure at the top, allowing the sash parts to be slimmer and giving stronger feelings of transparency and openness to the town. We adopted a seismic damping structure that combines a steel frame with an attenuation mechanism that absorbs vibration energy. This system is sufficient to ensure safety for this super high-rise design against ground motion of anticipated magnitude.