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57-storey skyscraper built in 19 days in Changsha

How long do you think it would take to build a skyscraper which is 57 storeys high? Two or three years perhaps? Well, a Chinese construction company has just built a 57-storey skyscraper, home to 800 apartments in an astounding 19 working days.

Built in Changsha, the capital of southern China’s Hunan Province, the skyscraper named Mini Sky City was actually built in two stages due to bad wet weather. The first stage consisted of 20 floors which were constructed last year, whilst the remaining 37 floors were built between 31 January and 17 February this year.

According to Xiao Changgen, Vice General Manager of Broad Group, the local pre-fabricated construction company, 95% of the building parts were pre-made in the factory. This meant that each part was assembled as if they were Lego by 1,200 workers.

Standing 200 metres tall, Mini Sky City has 19 atriums, 800 apartments and office space to house 4,000 office workers. The development area consists of 180,000 square metres, and there is also 3.6km of pedestrian streets.

An average of three stories a day was built, whilst Xiao commented that “With traditional construction methods the building would have taken two years to complete.”

So how safe is this 57-storey skyscraper if it only took 19 working days to build? Apparently, the building can withstand a 9M quake.

Surprisingly, little cement has been used, and the building is 80% more energy efficient compared to traditional buildings. The walls have 20cm thermal insulation, whilst the windows are quadruple-glazed. And as the building has been put together piece by piece using alloy screws, it means that dismantling the skyscraper can be done piece by piece and most pieces could be re-used or recycled.

So could this be the future of skyscrapers? With the population in Australia and across the globe continuing to grow at astounding rates, the demand for new housing is already high, and land is becoming harder to find. However, with many new high-rise apartment buildings taking at least two or more years to complete, perhaps developers should be turning their attention to new ways of building, such as using this Lego approach which is also a “greener” method.

The next challenge for the developer, Broad Sustainable Building is to build a 220-storey skyscraper in just three months, named Sky City. The same techniques would be used from the 57-storey skyscraper, Mini Sky City, and if it goes ahead it would be the world’s tallest skyscraper.
Published on 24th of June 2015 by Marty Stanowich
Marty Stanowich
Marty Stanowich

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