Kansai-kan Go to top page
Virtual tour of the Kansai-kan
 
Appearance Waterfall
Entrance Cube Skylight Roof
Entrance/Exit Counter Outer Walls
Reading rooms Courtyard
Closed stacks  
Automatic stacks  
Transfer System  
Cafeterias  
   
Outer Walls BackNext
The outer walls of the building are double-skin glass curtain walls made up of 2,000 units. Each unit consists of a tapestry glass and aluminium frame (each 3.75m wide by 1.5m high).

Conventionally, construction is done using scaffolding and the outer walls are assembled in the air. However, for the Kansai-kan a new method was adopted for the first time in Japan, in which the steel frame was assembled on the ground then raised using hydraulic jacks (the "wake-up method"). This method enabled high-quality curtain walls to be erected precisely, safely and quickly.