A Chinese construction company is claiming to be the world’s fastest builder after erecting a 57-storey skyscraper in 19 working days in central China.
Broad Sustainable Building, a prefab construction firm, put up the rectangular, glass and steel Mini Sky City in the Hunan provincial capital of Changsha, assembling three floors a day using a modular method, the vice-president, Xiao Changgeng, said.
The company now has ambitions to assemble the world’s tallest skyscraper, at 220 floors, in only three months.
The rectangular, glass and steel building has 19 atriums, 800 apartments and office space for 4,000 people.
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The rectangular, glass and steel building has 19 atriums, 800 apartments and office space for 4,000 people. Photograph: Peng Peng/AP
It worked on Mini Sky City in two bursts interrupted by bad weather. Its time-lapse video of the rapid build has become popular on Chinese video sharing sites since it was first uploaded to YouTube.
“With the traditional method they have to build a skyscraper brick by brick, but with our method we just need to assemble the blocks,” the company engineer Chen Xiangqian said.
Modular methods have been used for high-rise apartment blocks elsewhere, including in Britain and the US. Some critics say the method could lead to cityscapes with overly uniform architecture.
