The Chinese firm that can build a skyscraper in a matter of weeks

[M II A II R II K]

The Chinese firm that can build a skyscraper in a matter of weeks


June 26, 2015

By Eoghan Macguire

Read More: http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/26/asia/c...prefabricated/

At the beginning of February, construction workers gathered at a sparse building site in the city of Changsha, south-central China. A little under three weeks later, a 57-story skyscraper stood on the very same the spot. The "Mini Sky City" tower is the work of Broad Sustainable Building, a Chinese firm that specializes in prefabricated construction.

- To put the pace of BSB's construction into context, it took almost five years to build London's 37-story Walkie Talkie building which opened in August 2014. Although some may point out that the Changsha tower is less architecturally distinct than the likes of the 20 Fenchurch Street (the official name of the Walkie Talkie), the Chinese skyscraper remains a considerable structure with more than 800 apartments and office space for 4,000 workers.

- The first 20 floors of Mini Sky City were already completed at the end of 2014 before construction was delayed, BSB's senior vice president Juliet Jiang told CNN by email. The remaining 37 stories were then assembled between January 31 and February 17 -- a mere fraction of the time it took to build the same number of floors that make up the Walkie Talkie in its entirety.

- BSB is now reportedly keen to put its techniques further to the test by seeking permission to build an 838-meter-tall (2,749 ft) skyscraper in Changsha, a project first announced in 2013. If built in the stated ambitious 10 month time-frame, the "Sky City" structure would be the tallest building in the world until the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is completed.

- BSB believes this is a message it can take around the globe. According to its own website, the wider Broad group has products and operations in 70 countries -- although many of these are related the firm's other business interests in energy, heating and cooling and not construction.

- The company already boasts of a 15-story hotel assembled in six days and a 30-story hotel in 15 days among its other Chinese achievements. "What we are doing now is to sell buildings worldwide," Jiang continued. "We make them in China, ship them (across the globe)."

- According to Austin Williams, associate professor in architecture at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in the city of Suzhou, fast-build projects like Mini Sky City could be extremely useful for housing needs in other parts of the world. Urbanization is already happening at a rapid rate across many parts of Asia and Africa.

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