Updated by "Forest Circular Economy" Editorial Board on October 25, 2025, 4:40 PM JST
Editorial Board, Forest Circular Economy
Forestcircularity-editor
We aim to realize "Vision 2050: Japan Shines, Forest Circular Economy" promoted by the Platinum Forest Industry Initiative. We will disseminate ideas and initiatives to promote biomass chemistry, realize woody and lumbery communities, and encourage innovation in the forestry industry in order to fully utilize forest resources to decarbonize the economy, strengthen economic security, and create local communities.
Obayashi Corporation has developed SynchroMOK (SynchroMOK)(TM), a tool that automatically calculates the burn depth of wooden structures in conjunction with BIM (Building Information Modeling) based on the Fire Collapse Prevention Performance Verification Method and the Evacuation Collapse Prevention Performance Verification Method. This greatly streamlines the complex calculation process that has been a barrier to the design of pure wood structures for medium-scale buildings, and encourages proposals for quasi-fire-resistant structures.
The tool has two main features. The first is the smooth evaluation of the feasibility of wood construction through the use of BIM One Model. Obayashi Corporation is promoting the consistent use of BIM One Model based on its own BIM modeling rules, the Smart BIM Standard(R). By linking this tool to a group of systems already in operation, the company has established a more advanced and efficient system for extracting the information necessary for legal review.
The second is the streamlining of the calculation process for burn depth, which indicates the depth to which the surface of the wood will carbonize. By simply entering basic evacuation information such as walking distance and walking speed, the necessary structural information is automatically obtained from BIM, making it possible to calculate the burn depth in a short time.
The streamlining of the calculation process through systemization will provide an opportunity to promote the conversion of medium-scale buildings to wood construction, where complex procedures have been a barrier in the past. Since wood emits less CO2 during manufacturing than other building materials and has the ability to store carbon even after it has been converted into a building material, the conversion of medium-scale buildings to wood construction will greatly contribute to the realization of a decarbonized society.
Obayashi plans to use SynchroMOK to increase the efficiency of its design work, and to strengthen its proposal for pure wood construction for medium-scale buildings, for which demand for reconstruction is increasing.
