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Building The World’s Tallest Building…In 90 Days

With their unique prefab approach, a Chinese company has already built a 15-story hotel in 48 hours and a 30-story tower in 15 days. This one — 220 stories — is scheduled to be completed by March.

What’s the Latest Development?

Plans are underway for the January construction start of China’s Sky City, which, if completed, will be the tallest building in the world (838 meters, about 10 meters higher than the current recordholder, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa) and the fastest-built of its kind, with an estimated completion time of 90 days. The Broad Sustainable Building Corporation is responsible for this effort, which will take place in Changsha, a city in Hunan Province. The tower will contain “a hospital, a school, 17 helipads, and enough apartments to house 30,000.”

What’s the Big Idea?

Broad CEO Zhang Yue said in an interview, “Traditional construction is chaotic…We took construction and moved it into the factory.” It’s in the factory that each floor is fabricated, along with the necessary additions to stack the floors on top of each other. They are then transported to the site, where a crane lifts each floor to the top and workers quickly connect the plumbing and wiring. This Lego-like approach to building has already been proven twice: A 15-story hotel was built in 48 hours in 2010, and a 30-story tower was built in 15 days in 2011. After Sky City, Zhang has an even more ambitious plan ahead: A proposed building that will stand a full 2 kilometers tall.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

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