When tearing down a building, many of us have an idea of how it’s done – explosives are placed at strategic points within the building, and the implosion causes the building to collapse onto itself. Neighboring buildings are left untouched, except for some massive clean-up work the day after. Very impressive, no?

A Japanese firm has taken up the process another level with an astonishing innovation that’s not only faster, but also good for the environment too!

The process is almost Lego-like in its simplicity. Firstly, computer-controlled mechanical pillars are placed at ground level. Then, the crew carefully demolishes the entire floor manually – leaving the structure resting on the “replacement” pillars. The mechanical pillars then lowers itself until the entire floor is at ground level. The process is repeated until the whole building is demolished, one floor at a time.

The new technique, known as daruma-otoshi results in less pollution, makes recycling easier and speeds up the entire process by 20%!

Credit: http://freshome.com/2008/07/18/how-to-demolish-a-skyscraper-one-floor-at-a-time/