On the 23rd of October 2007 international researchers, politicians and entrepreneurs coming from United States, Canada, Korea, India and New Zealand were all gathered in Miki, a small Japanese town that houses the National Research Institute of Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, the most important anti-seismic laboratory, where a seven-storey building – 23.5 meters of height – survived Kobe’s earthquake simulation. For the first time since 1995, when a devastating earthquake, known as “Great Haushin-Awaji”, shaked an entire village in Kobe and caused nearly six thousand victims, a wooden structure successfully survived such a blast.

Yoshimitsu Okada, one of the leading ant-seismic experts, applauded Italy’s project, called “SOFIE”, claiming that it is an innovation destined to change worldwide building techniques.
SOFIE is the result of a five-year research run by IVALSA (Trees and Timber Institute) of Italy’s National Research Council (CNR).
A really innovative system, if we take into account the fact that international laws intedict to raise wooden buildings with more than 7.5 meters of height on seismic areas.