General Products & Real Estate - Business Overview
The office at Ashoro Town Hall in Ashoro-gun, Hokkaido, which was built with the Summit HR Construction System. It features larch from the town’s forests as well as a wide opening and large space without braces (posts placed crosswise to reinforce the building).
Wooden houses that are built in the traditional Japanese architectural style are popular for the tenderness, warmth and smell of their wood. But wooden houses offer many other advantages, including excellent heat insulation and humidity control, as well as deodorizing and disinfecting effects, and are also environmentally superior. That's why wooden houses have been making a come-back in recent years. In October 2010, the Japanese government established the Act on the Promotion of the Utilization of Wood in Public Buildings, boosting the trend toward using timber materials for public facilities such as schools and libraries in addition to houses.
In particular, the Summit HR (Holz Ramen) Construction System developed by Sumisho & Mitsuibussan Kenzai Co., Ltd. (SMKC), a subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation, is attracting much attention.
Close-up of a joint of the Summit HR Construction System. The joint is reinforced with rods that pass through and is hardened with epoxy resin.
The Summit HR Construction System, which was uniquely developed by SMKC, features high strength. Wood is used to achieve large open spaces in buildings with no partitions, such as concert halls and gymnasiums, which in the past could only be built using reinforced concrete.
There are two reasons for the Summit HR Construction System’s high strength. The first is that laminated wood (engineered wood) is used, which is a special type of wood that is processed in factories off-site using layers of wood and chipped wood. Laminated wood has excellent strength and stability required of industrial products as well as heat insulation, humidity control, and sound absorption properties. Second, the posts and beams are made from laminated wood that is reinforced with rods and hardened with resin. Laminated wood has no exposed metal joints, so the full warmth of the wood is revealed. Furthermore, tests conducted by various research institutes have shown that this construction system delivers sufficient strength in compliance with the latest Building Standards Law. In fact, a construction industry website reported that a factory in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, which was built with the Summit HR Construction System, withstood the Great East Japan Earthquake and ensuing tsunami.
Multipurpose hall at Seki Junior High School in Kameyama City, Mie Prefecture, which won the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries award for excellent wooden facilities in 2011. It is used as a lunch hall where all students gather to eat meals.
The Summit HR Construction System also enables "local production for local consumption." For example, sugi (Japanese cedar) is an endemic species in Japan and is widely planted as a resource, but it does not have sufficient strength to be used in large buildings. However, laminated wood can be made from such wood that lacks strength and timber from forest-thinning, thus expanding the potential of domestic wood.
In addition, the Summit HR Construction System is implemented on site at every stage of a building project, from design to the procurement of materials and the management of construction, and therefore, it is possible to use local resources for processing and construction.
The system has also won praise for the design qualities of products utilizing the features of wood and has been enjoying growing demand from elementary schools and other public facilities in recent years. To date, approximately 700 buildings around the country have been built using this construction system, and we have won many awards, including the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries award for excellent wooden facilities (Seki Junior High School, Kameyama City, Mie Prefecture) and the BCS (Building Contractors Society) Award (library and lecture buildings at Akita International University, Akita Prefecture).
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