NHERI 10 Story shake table project featuring innovative rocking walls

Author: José Tomás Franco

Publication: Arch Daily

05.17.23

First-Ever Earthquake Simulation in a 10-Story Mass Timber Building


The Tallwood Building, designed by LEVER Architecture and fabricated by Timberlab using donated mass timber products, reaches a height of 116 feet. According to the architects, "The design, developed as a typical market rate prototype, is distinguished by its mass timber rocking walls, which allow the structure to rock and recenter itself during an earthquake, with no damage to the primary structural system. Post-tensioned steel rods extending the entire height of each rocking wall, as well as replaceable U-Shaped Flexural Plates (UFPs) at each floor level, absorb the force of a seismic event. The concept exceeds basic life-safety performance requirements by creating a resilient and easily repairable solution, avoiding the need to tear down the building following an earthquake."

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