Tiles used at stations

[kuro68000]

 

Stations, and in fact many buildings in Japan, seem to make extensive use of tiles.

 

In the example above, from Seibu-Tachikawa station, we can see that the cladding appears to have been cut where it joins the bottom of the staircase. It all aligns perfectly.

 

What are these tiles? Who makes them and what are they made of? And what is underneath them? Unfortunately whenever they do construction work in Japan they cover it all up so you don't get to see how it's done.

 

I know most buildings in Japan are steel or wood frame, rather than brick like in Europe, for Earthquake resistance. Are these bolted to the frame? How about insulation, do they bother?

[bill937ca]

I don't have any specific information, but you could try Skyscraper City and the Japan Urban Transport Compilation thread. Its not as active as it used to  be but there are lots of station construction threads.

 

https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/japan-urban-transport-compilation.828904/page-392

[railsquid]

I'm not a construction expert or anything, but I'd bet money the structure in the photo is a steel girder framework, probably with some sort of struts to mount the cladding on. No point in insulating that kind of structure as it's open to the elements and it's unlikely to be either heated or cooled. I'd guess the cladding itself is some kind of composite material (fibreglass? plywood?) with some sort of coating.

[Tony Galiani]

This is only slightly related but you might find it interesting

 

I showed this to some of the people I worked with on our clinic construction and they were floored by the planning and preparation - precutting the wallboard and expecting to fit correctly when installed was beyond belief for them.

Construction practices in the USA seem really shoddy in comparison.  And even though I am no longer responsible for clinic projects, it drives me crazy to visit one of our sites and seen the mediocre workmanship.

Ciao,

Tony

[kuro68000]

 

Some more tiles here. Looking at the ones on the far wall, they look like they must have been cut on-site. I don't think they would have planned to have those odd shapes and ordered them like that. They must be cuttable on-site.

[kuro68000]

On 8/4/2022 at 8:01 PM, Tony Galiani said:

This is only slightly related but you might find it interesting

 

Thanks for this video, it's fascinating. The quality is incredible.

 

I asked a Japanese engineer on Twitter about the tiles. Apparently they are cut on-site.

[Tony Galiani]

That seems logical to me.  I found the approach on the video really surprising.

Tony

[kuro68000]

4 hours ago, Tony Galiani said:

That seems logical to me.  I found the approach on the video really surprising.

Tony

 

I wasn't so much surprised, since that kind of attention to quality is not unusual in Japan I think. It was just a bit of a shock to be reminded of it, especially having seen some new houses around here recently. One was already underwater, and the other had brickwork that I could see was uneven from several metres away.