Chinese Meccano

The IX World Congress conducted by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH ) was held this time in Shanghai and the delegates could get to know the peculiarities of local high-rise construction.

Nineteen people took part in the regional tour to Changsha in the eastern part of the country. One of the many rapidly developing Chinese cities, Changsha has become very well known owing to the project run by the Chinese innovative company Broad Sustainable Building (BSB). They built the tallest skyscraper with the help of unique technologies that were created by the Group. Skyscrapers are usually treated very thoroughly: large-scale projects, mind-numbing calculations, regular breakthroughs in engineering and construction technologies…

Does it mean they cannot be quickly built? “Not at all, - says Mr. Zhang Yue the 52-year-old chairman and founder of the Chinese innovative company BSB who promised to build Sky City skyscraper which is 838 meters high (i.e. 10 meters higher than Burj Khalifa) within only 7 months. We do not need to mention that it took approximately 6 years to build Burj Khalifa. What is the reason for this confidence? Let us mention that there are already several construction records in the bank of the company.

Before that BSB conquered the world with their construction pace when they built a 3-storey house within 9 days and a 30-storey house within 15 days. This became possible because of the new production technology of building blocks that the BSB Group initially tested on low-rise houses – dormitories for the employees of the company. According to the CNNGo, the construction of the 220-storey skyscraper Sky City will only require $628 million. It is 2,4 times less than what was spent on the construction of Burj Khalifa. 95% of the building will be produced at the factory before the foundation is laid.

The architects will only have to put building blocks together just like a giant 3D-riddle. 83% of Sky City skyscraper will be taken by apartments with up to 17 400 people living inside. Besides that there will be a hotel, a hospital, a school, offices, stand-alone shops and restaurants there. The total amount of residents, tenants and visitors of the multifunctional complex reaches 31400 people.

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Article and photos by ELENA SHUVALOVA, regional representative of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTB UH) in Russia