How On Earth Did The Chinese Build A 57-Storey Skyscraper In Just 19 Days?
Not months. Not weeks. Days. But how?
By Sadho Ram — 13 Mar 2015, 02:26 PM
Earlier this week, 9 March, news about a 57-storey skyscraper, built at the rate of 3 full stories a day, fully built in just 19 days went viral.
The 180,000sq meter skyscraper is fully built with energy-efficient, factory-produced Lego-like blocks. Originally planned to be built up to a height of 220-storey, it was cut down in size due to concern of being too close to a nearby airport, according to Gizmodo.
It has 800 apartments and office space for 4,000 people. The prefabricated construction is also environmentally friendly, reducing the use of concrete trucks by 15,000, according to Business Insider.
The company claims that the building was constructed with China's pollution problem in mind, using quadruple thick glass and tight construction which helps keep the air inside the building 99.9% pure. But how on earth did they complete it in just 19 days?
For context, it was nearly 5 years into construction before One World Trade Center reached approximately the same height, and several more years before that building was finally completed.
So how was the skyscraper built?
The skyscraper was built beforehand and only assembled on the site. The company behind the project goes by the name of Broad Sustainable Building and it used prefabricated blocks that resemble LEGOs to build the whole structure.
This process has been used before for quite some time, but this is definitely a new record when it comes to building a skyscraper this tall in such a short amount of time.
geeksnack.com
As usual for Broad's buildings, they are really efficient, with 8" of insulation and quadruple-glazed windows and the best air quality in China, with 3 stage air purification, particulates reduced by 99.9%, 7 air changes per hour and 100% fresh air that's run through heat recovery ventilators. It's got combined heating, cooling and power, (Broad's main business is air conditioning) making the building 80% more efficient than conventional buildings.
treehugger.com
A key element in the design of the building, named Sky City, is the interior square and "sky street" that connects the building vertically
There are 19 of these 3 story high atria stacked on top of each other, and 3.6 km (2.23 miles) of ramp. The atria can be used for basketball, tennis, theaters or even vertical farms.
treehugger.com