Okay so maybe I was wrong I have a lot to say about the architecture. The suspended beam in the centre of Suzu Tower is, as I guessed, earthquake resistance. It is in fact a Shinbashira (心柱, also 真柱 or 刹/擦 satsu) which is a structural pillar constructed of cypress logs banded together with iron braces. As we see in the game, the shinbashira doesn't actually touch the tower at all except all the way up at the top of the final roof, where it is attached to the roof structure and the base of the finnail. The one in Bell Tower is free-floating all the way up all ten floors... wait, ten?
Oh yeah right this pagoda makes no goddamn sense because it has ten internal floors but is very visibly nine levels when viewed from outside. This is in line with the fact that all Japanese pagodas are either two-storey buildings or an odd number, most of the remaining ones being either three or five, though several seven and a few nine-storey examples are documented to have existed previously. Suzu Tower is very clearly a nine-storey pagoda, and the original Gen II internal layout even reflects this, having nine internal floors. The remakes added a 10F for some reason before you get up to the roof.
In any case, a shinbashira is free-floating because it is an inertial mass damper which is essentially a giant pendulum that absorbs the kinetic energy from a structure to lessen its vibration due to wind or seismic activity. There is an excellent youtube video by Practical Engineering that demonstrates this basic principle, though it must be noted that while this idea has seen resurgence in many earthquake-prone areas nowadays, structural engineer Shuzo Ishida modelled several styles of shinbashira and found that actually anchoring the pillar to the foundation instead of being suspended like a TMD provided much better resistance to earthquake vibration. The action of the pillar doesn't actually involve the wooden structure at all and is instead propagated directly from the moving ground through the foundation stone, reducing the energy the foundations transfer into the pagoda itself.
As for what a pagoda actually IS, Japanese pagodas are in fact Buddhist reliquaries. That is they are repositories for important religious artifacts, which may be sacred objects or even the whole or partial remains of holy figures. They tend to be attached to Buddhist temples, but prior to the late 1800s, almost every Buddhist temple in Japan was also a Shinto shrine complex, so it's not uncommon to see them connected to shrines. This conflux of Japan's two major disparate, though often confused even by scholars, belief systems seems rather apt for the mythological pastiche that is Pokémon. It's also worth noting that Japanese pagodas aren't necessarily big wooden buildings with multiple layered roofs, but in fact can be solid stone obelisks of similar shape, some styles being used as cenotaphs or tombstones.
So that solves the original mystery of the two Ecruteak towers. As the Generations anime much more clearly shows us they were constructed as part of a pair of temple complexes, most likely as reliquaries or simply as decorative towers as part of the aesthetic. The temples themselves, then, may appear to have been dedicated to Lugia and Ho-oh specifically from the very beginning, though it's unclear why the two kami decided to roost in the towers originally or just how much of that legend is even true.
Edit: I actually found a video demonstrating the basic mechanical function on youtube. You can see how the freestanding central pillar moves, though I can't find any comparative footage for a similar structure lacking the shinbashira. This transfer of kinetic energy, along with the pagoda structure being designed with multiple-part unfastened wooden joints that effectively slide over each other between floors, reduces the magnitude of the lateral forces on the pagoda tower and the amount by which its centre of gravity is displaced during an earthquake, which drastically lowers the risk of the tower being pulled over by its own weight or severely damaged by torque forces pulling joints apart.
Edit edit: yes I did just write a thousand words about the architecture of pagodas in your Pokemon LP you're welcome.
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branchandroot
Re: The Burned Tower, The Bell Tower, and Ecruteak:
Date: 2022-06-26 07:00 am (UTC)The suspended beam in the centre of Suzu Tower is, as I guessed, earthquake resistance. It is in fact a Shinbashira (心柱, also 真柱 or 刹/擦 satsu) which is a structural pillar constructed of cypress logs banded together with iron braces. As we see in the game, the shinbashira doesn't actually touch the tower at all except all the way up at the top of the final roof, where it is attached to the roof structure and the base of the finnail. The one in Bell Tower is free-floating all the way up all ten floors... wait, ten?
Oh yeah right this pagoda makes no goddamn sense because it has ten internal floors but is very visibly nine levels when viewed from outside. This is in line with the fact that all Japanese pagodas are either two-storey buildings or an odd number, most of the remaining ones being either three or five, though several seven and a few nine-storey examples are documented to have existed previously. Suzu Tower is very clearly a nine-storey pagoda, and the original Gen II internal layout even reflects this, having nine internal floors. The remakes added a 10F for some reason before you get up to the roof.
In any case, a shinbashira is free-floating because it is an inertial mass damper which is essentially a giant pendulum that absorbs the kinetic energy from a structure to lessen its vibration due to wind or seismic activity. There is an excellent youtube video by Practical Engineering that demonstrates this basic principle, though it must be noted that while this idea has seen resurgence in many earthquake-prone areas nowadays, structural engineer Shuzo Ishida modelled several styles of shinbashira and found that actually anchoring the pillar to the foundation instead of being suspended like a TMD provided much better resistance to earthquake vibration. The action of the pillar doesn't actually involve the wooden structure at all and is instead propagated directly from the moving ground through the foundation stone, reducing the energy the foundations transfer into the pagoda itself.
As for what a pagoda actually IS, Japanese pagodas are in fact Buddhist reliquaries. That is they are repositories for important religious artifacts, which may be sacred objects or even the whole or partial remains of holy figures. They tend to be attached to Buddhist temples, but prior to the late 1800s, almost every Buddhist temple in Japan was also a Shinto shrine complex, so it's not uncommon to see them connected to shrines. This conflux of Japan's two major disparate, though often confused even by scholars, belief systems seems rather apt for the mythological pastiche that is Pokémon. It's also worth noting that Japanese pagodas aren't necessarily big wooden buildings with multiple layered roofs, but in fact can be solid stone obelisks of similar shape, some styles being used as cenotaphs or tombstones.
So that solves the original mystery of the two Ecruteak towers. As the Generations anime much more clearly shows us they were constructed as part of a pair of temple complexes, most likely as reliquaries or simply as decorative towers as part of the aesthetic. The temples themselves, then, may appear to have been dedicated to Lugia and Ho-oh specifically from the very beginning, though it's unclear why the two kami decided to roost in the towers originally or just how much of that legend is even true.
Edit: I actually found a video demonstrating the basic mechanical function on youtube. You can see how the freestanding central pillar moves, though I can't find any comparative footage for a similar structure lacking the shinbashira. This transfer of kinetic energy, along with the pagoda structure being designed with multiple-part unfastened wooden joints that effectively slide over each other between floors, reduces the magnitude of the lateral forces on the pagoda tower and the amount by which its centre of gravity is displaced during an earthquake, which drastically lowers the risk of the tower being pulled over by its own weight or severely damaged by torque forces pulling joints apart.
Edit edit: yes I did just write a thousand words about the architecture of pagodas in your Pokemon LP you're welcome.