The 10-story wooden building withstood 100 earthquakes in a test.

In the US, a full-size wooden building stood on a 93-square-meter test platform and withstood multiple vibrations simulating earthquakes.

The TallWood wooden building underwent a shaking table test in San Diego in May. Photo: Sandy Huffaker/Bloomberg — The TallWood wooden building underwent testing with a "shaking table" in San Diego in May. Photo: *Sandy Huffaker/Bloomberg*

The 34-meter-tall wooden building is the tallest structure ever to withstand simulated earthquakes on the world's largest high-performance "shaking table," which uses hydraulic actuators to move a steel platform to simulate seismic forces. The shaking table tests took place at the University of California San Diego's facility and were part of the TallWood Project, Bloomberg reported on June 6.

The TallWood project aims to test the seismic resistance of high-rise buildings made of monolithic timber – a material consisting of multiple layers of wood nailed together. Monolithic timber is becoming increasingly popular as a more sustainable alternative to carbon-intensive concrete and steel.

The 10-story wooden building has withstood more than 100 earthquakes, and that number is expected to increase before the testing concludes in August. "The building is experiencing a number of earthquakes that it would realistically never experience unless it existed for about 5,000 years," said Thomas Robinson, founder of Lever Architecture, the American firm involved in designing TallWood.

The first three floors of the 34-meter-tall building are clad in orange and silver panels around the glass windows. The rest of the building is open, with each floor featuring four horizontally vibrating walls designed to minimize structural damage in the event of an earthquake. The engineering team also designed interior walls and stairwells to withstand strong vibrations and installed sensors throughout the building. Two five-story metal protective towers are located on one side, and cables anchor the building to the ground on the opposite side to prevent collapse should the building fall during testing.

Two guard towers of the wooden building during the experiment. Photo: Sandy Huffaker/Bloomberg — Two guard towers of the wooden building during the experiment. Photo: *Sandy Huffaker/Bloomberg*

One May morning, engineers programmed a vibrating table to recreate two devastating earthquakes. The first was the 6.7 magnitude earthquake in Los Angeles in 1994. In just 20 seconds, the disaster caused over $40 billion in damage as buildings and highways collapsed, killing 60 people. The second was the 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan in 1999, which destroyed numerous high-rise concrete and steel buildings and claimed the lives of over 2,400 people.

After half an hour, experts deemed the building safe enough to enter. Shiling Pei, principal investigator for the TallWood Project and associate professor of environmental and civil engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, inspected the walls and floors of the third floor. "This is exactly the result we expected—no structural damage. That means the building can be used again quickly," Pei said.

According to Robinson, avoiding costly structural repairs and quickly getting buildings back into operation helped mitigate the economic and social damage from the earthquake. He also noted that the exterior walls of the TallWood building remained straight despite the intense shaking.

Once the earthquake test is complete, the building will be dismantled and its components recycled for use in other test structures. The research team hopes the test results will encourage the construction of more high-rise monolithic timber buildings, as they have demonstrated their durability.

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