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Chinese Firm Approved To Raise World's Tallest Building In 90 Days

kkleiner writes "The long anticipated Chinese construction project called Sky City, a 220-story building that can house 30,000 people, has finally received approval from the central government to break ground. The firm Broad Sustainable Building previously constructed a prefab 30-story building in 15 days, but for Sky City, they have an even more aggressive schedule: 90 days to build 2,750 feet into the air. Once completed, the building will be a place for people to both live and work, with recreational facilities, theaters, a school, and a hospital all within the structure."

26 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. And it takes 100 days to fix a clock? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey, that is 10 days less than it takes BBC to fix a clock on their homepage :)

    1. Re:And it takes 100 days to fix a clock? by OhANameWhatName · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well that depends on how you calculate time doesn't it?

    2. Re:And it takes 100 days to fix a clock? by telchine · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well that depends on how you calculate time doesn't it?

      Time is a like a series of tubes, the more tubes you have, the faster time flows.

  2. Built in 90 days by Viol8 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Falls down in 90 seconds.

    And if anyone thinks I'm being unfair they should read up on the safety compromises chinese railways made in the rush to build high speed lines in record time.

    1. Re:Built in 90 days by tippe · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You're not the only one that thinks so. From TFA:

      Head of Structures for WSP Middle East, Bart Leclercq, told Middle East Architect, “I don’t think it’s possible to build [an 838m tower] as quickly as they claim. If they manage to build this structure in three months then I will give up structural engineering. I will hang my hat and retire. I will be eating humble pie as well.”
      Leclercq likes the idea of prefabrication but says concrete poured onsite in tall buildings provides stiffness, and the time it takes concrete to cure is non-negotiable. He thinks the five-year mark set by the Burj Khalifa is about as good as it gets with current techniques and technologies.

  3. Re:Larry Niven's Oath of Fealty by YuppieScum · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Arcology" is the term of reference...

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  4. A 90 Day Erection by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is something to be wary of.

    1. Re:A 90 Day Erection by OhANameWhatName · · Score: 3, Funny

      Is something to be wary of

      You're a hard, hard man

    2. Re:A 90 Day Erection by c0lo · · Score: 3, Funny

      Wonder how many rhinoceros and tigers were sacrificed?

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  5. Hive City by Aboroth · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is history in the making, humanity's first hive city. Glory to the Emperor!

  6. Old news, obsoleted six months ago by Nuffsaid · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Fine Article is a full year old. On October 17 2012 the very same source reported that the firm revised its plans, pointing to a more reasonable (but still very short) 210 days construction time. http://inhabitat.com/worlds-tallest-skyscraper-to-be-built-in-210-days-instead-of-90-as-originally-planned/

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    1. Re:Old news, obsoleted six months ago by cdrudge · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'll see your 210 days and raise you a Nov 16th, 2012 quote by Juliet Jiang, senior vice president of Broad Group:

      [Construction] will go on as planned with the completion of five storeys a day.

      We have not issued any press statement on this and it will go on as planned ... we have not said anything about 210 days.

  7. Units in the summary by Freultwah · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I realise that many /. readers are from the US, but out of politeness to the rest of the world, it would have been nice to provide metric units in the summary in addition to the imperial units. Yes, I can go and convert them and so can others, but such accumulated waste of time could have been easily avoided.

    1. Re:Units in the summary by JRowe47 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Condescending? I wasn't preaching imperial superiority or anything like that.

      I already know the metric system. I accept the fact that there are two conventions, and I live with it. I agree the metric system is easier. At some point, however, you have to reconcile yourself to the undeniable fact that there are times in life you'll have to deal with imperial units. It sucks, but get over it. (That last bit was condescending, in case you missed it.)

      As for the post that started this, he implied that the summary was somehow impolite because it didn't conform to his preferred units of measurement. I responded in kind. The summary wasn't impolite, it's a consequence of the worldwide culture we live in. It's not logical to go around expecting the rest of the world to conform to your notions of right and wrong (metric right, imperial wrong.) Even when metric measurement is clearly and objectively a superior system, it's not "impolite" to use imperial units of measurement It's especially not sensible to couch your expectation of other people's conformity in some sort of assumption that noncomformity is offensive or rude.

      At worst, noncomformity is ignorant. At best, it's simply a competing convention. Learn to accept that and your life will have much less needless stress.

    2. Re:Units in the summary by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The US is one of only three countries in the world that uses that system. Some people in the UK do but it isn't taught at school any more. You expect the rest of the world to know conversion ratios for your archaic system. Feet just happen to be an easy 1/3 ratio with metres but most other Imperial units are not.

      Politeness would be recognizing that you chose not to use the standard system everyone else does but still accommodating them with a quick google conversion.

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  8. Re:Seems like overkill by tgd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Nah. Gotta keep up the imaginary growth factor, after all it's not like banks over there are already running into issues seizing assets from companies who've taken loans out against them. You know, two, three or sometimes four times. Wish I could find the article on zero hedge again but it was up sometime last year.

    Every country's growth is based on an imaginary growth factor.

    At least they're getting infrastructure out of it.

  9. 2,750 foot = 3048 african swallow wingspans. by Barryke · · Score: 5, Funny

    I found it very hard to google the average foot size, so i converted it for you all to see.

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  10. Re:it's going to fail by ocamsrazor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are two kinds of failure. The failure of ambitious dreams that maybe we'll see in china. And the never ending failure of the miserable cynical bastards in the west who never open their mouths but to whine about how terrible everything is. People so fundamentally opposed to a better world tomorrow that the highest political ambition is austerity (both economic and environmental).

    You want to talk about rotten infrastructure and social unrest? Let's see where another ten years of politicians "saving money" get's you.

  11. Empire State Building Built in 14 months by wilby · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You're not the only one that thinks so. From TFA:

    Head of Structures for WSP Middle East, Bart Leclercq, told Middle East Architect, “I don’t think it’s possible to build [an 838m tower] as quickly as they claim. If they manage to build this structure in three months then I will give up structural engineering. I will hang my hat and retire. I will be eating humble pie as well.”
    Leclercq likes the idea of prefabrication but says concrete poured onsite in tall buildings provides stiffness, and the time it takes concrete to cure is non-negotiable. He thinks the five-year mark set by the Burj Khalifa is about as good as it gets with current techniques and technologies.

    Five years to build with current technology?
    The Empire State Building in New York was built in 14 months.
    Maybe they should look at using 1930's technology.

    1. Re:Empire State Building Built in 14 months by Chowderbags · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The Empire State Building used 48000 cubic meters of concrete. The Burj Khalifa used 330000 cubic meters of concrete.

  12. Re:it's going to fail by oobayly · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Couple this with the social unrest of the one-child per family, resulting in 30 million unmarried men [blogspot.com], and you have the fodder stimulating a revolution.

    How is the imbalance caused by the one-child per family policy? It was caused by the selective abortion by short-sighted people who thought that having an unmarried male heir is better than a married female heir (either that or they thought that they were the only people with the genius idea of making sure they'd have a son)

    Other points - spot on.

  13. Re: 90 days to raise... by ebno-10db · · Score: 3, Informative

    The building itself is well built from what i can see, but you can't prefab a foundation, and a real foundation takes time.

    IANASE (I am not a structural engineer) but there is serious concern about prefab for something this height. FTA:

    Head of Structures for WSP Middle East, Bart Leclercq ... likes the idea of prefabrication but says concrete poured onsite in tall buildings provides stiffness, and the time it takes concrete to cure is non-negotiable. He thinks the five-year mark set by the Burj Khalifa is about as good as it gets with current techniques and technologies.

    I'd be very interested to hear from anyone here who has expertise in concrete.

  14. How much "building time" is actual building? by istartedi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This isn't a rhetorical question. I really want to know. AFAIK in the US you have to have plans drawn before you build, so building time is actual building; but plans are sometimes changed even during building, right? How much do they fudge that to the point where "building" is actually planning and building? Now the WTC replacement took a really long time; but most of it was arguing.

    Have the Chinese cut out all the arguing and decided that they won't modify plans during construction even if they should?

    I'm inclined to think "no". If I had to come up with a plan to erect a skyscraper in 90 days, I'd design one prefab box that could be stacked N high, and I'd stack them. I'd base the "box" design on an entire previous building, just stronger. Having seen renderings of the proposed structure, it looks like that's what they did.

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  15. Coming Chinese real estate crash? by GameboyRMH · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Japan had plans to build crazy "arcologies" like this in the late '80s-early '90s, just before their real estate market cratered hard.

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  16. Re: 90 days to raise... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    IAAASE (I actually AM a structural engineer) and I am definitely concerned. Concrete will have to be poured on site, since there will need to be a homogenous shear force resistance from the top of this thing all the way down to the bottom. If the sections were simply bolted together, then 200+ vertical slip-critical connections is going to give you a heck of a wobble.

    Poured reinforced concrete is a composite connection, the steel acting to counter the moment effects and tension forces in concrete.

    However, I have not seen all of the plans for this thing, and if they were to assemble, say, 20 storeys with formworks for shear assemblies, then poured a twenty story concrete lift on site, waited three days to achieve 75% curing strength, then kept going with 20 more storeys, this could work. It's not impossible, but there's a lot of problems that, while SOLVABLE, would never get approval in North America due to unacceptable levels of risk.

  17. Re:it's going to fail by meerling · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's not a suggestion that male names are superior, it's a means to strengthen familial bonds.
    A primary result (intended or otherwise) of couples has always been reproduction.
    The lineage of the Mother is never in doubt.
    If the father has his name attached to said resulting offspring, and the assurances of the Mother that the child is his, he will usually accept that it is and help support both the child and the mother. Otherwise, there is a much lower rate of acceptance and fathers (or possible fathers) will leave them claiming it's another males child.
    Strangely enough, this has been studied. I read a science article on it about a month or two ago.
    No, I am not a sociologist or anything, but the info is out there, you just have to look for it.