Is it finally happening?
A true vertical city. This is the concept behind Sky City, a 838m-high tower destined for Changsha in Hunan Province and allegedly due to begin construction next month (June 2013). The team behind the project is Broad Sustainable Building (BSB), a Chinese construction group responsible for some of the swiftest building projects in the world including the 15-day construction of 30-storey hotel in Dongting Lake.
BSB is planning to realise Sky City - which will rise 10m above the world’s current tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa - in only 7 months using prefabricated components in a plan that has been scorned by many industry professionals.
The gross building area of the tower will be 1,200,000 sq.m across the main 220-storey building and 4 much shorter wing buildings between 3 and 7 storeys in height. There will also be 4 basement levels totalling 130,000 sq m. Residential units will be located on floors 16 to 180 with 4,000 homes in total and 500+ hotel rooms are planned from floors 181 to 219, supported by clubs and restaurant facilities.
Staying in line with the ‘vertical city’ concept, Sky City will also include primary and middle schools, kindergartens, nursing homes and hospital clinics on levels 1 to 5 and sporting facilities including basketball fields, tennis courts, athletics fields and table tennis facilities both within the main tower and the 4 wing buildings. A series of roof terraces are also within the plans. Sustainability has always been integral to BSB projects and the firm stresses that this project is no exception in the following statement: “[The design] drastically reduces dependence on transportation by integrated offices, residences, schools, hospitals, shopping malls and entertainments. It reduces 80% of energy consumption by utilizing 20-inch wall thermal insulation, 4-layer windows, heat recovery fresh air system, LED lighting power generation by elevator descending and Combined Cooling-Heating-Power system.”
Broad Sustainable Group