Gizmodo reader Xian Min Zhang just sent me this impressive timelapse video from his company’s latest project: a 30-storey, 17,000m² hotel built in just 360 hours. Just 15 days! I kept watching it in disbelief.
It was erected near the Dongting lake, in the Hunan Province, China, by Broad Group, a Chinese construction company that specialises in sustainable architecture. The building uses prefabricated modules (with a +/- 0.2mm precision in the fabrication process) mounted on a steel structure, with diagonal steel bracing.
The hotel is so solid that it can resist a magnitude nine earthquake, as tested by the China Academy of Building Research (there’s a scene in which you can see the testing process, at 1:49). They claim this is five times more earthquake-resistant than conventional buildings.
The company also says that it is five times more energy efficient, with 15cm-thick glass curtain wall insulation and four-paned windows with built-in shades, a heat recovery system and three-stage filtration air conditioning process that purifies indoor air to be 20 times purer than the air outside. They even have air quality monitoring in every room which, given the pollution problem in China, seems to be an important selling point there.
Their previous record was a smaller 15-storey building constructed in just six days, but this one is much more impressive. [Thanks Xian Min Zhang!]
Eccentric
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 9:24 AMI don’t care how tight the specs are, building something that fast is a recipe for a bad day at the hurricane, or earth quake or whatever! Plus, the services, plumbing, wiring, plasterboard etc will still have to be done before it’s actually finished.
Eccentric
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 9:29 AMHmm, actually having watched a couple of times, I noticed the walls are also fully finished and the plumbing is pre fitted too. Pretty slick actually, still think it was done too quickly, but then I’ll probably never have to stay there…
smac
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 9:40 AMI can see your point that it just does’t seem right to build this so quickly, but I don’t think it’s totally fair. I am sure early automobile makers would be shocked at how fast modern factories can churn out a car; our modern cars are infinitely safer than those old clunkers.
Nicholas
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 9:48 AMSeems they are very efficient with buildings; not with video. I reckon I could make that thing run in half the time and it would still be just as full of content… ;)
John
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 10:23 AMSaying it was constructed in 360 hours is bending the truth. As the video shows a huge amount of work was done pre-constructing the pieces to put together on site. If you factor in that time you will get a true reflection of how long it took to construct this building.
morkai
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 10:42 AMAlso the outer surfaces are not finished when the clock hits 360 hours.
morgs
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 1:52 PMyeah it was, thats the reflection of the sky
Paddy
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 11:17 AM“constructed” – yes it was. it’s like cooking something – cooking time and preparation time. and morkai, outer surfaces were finished after the building was constructed.
Richard
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 1:43 PMYeah I think that given a lot, if not the bulk of the work was being done off site constructing each wall, putting the plumbing in etc then that surely falls under the construction timeline, even if it’s being done on another site. Other buildings taking longer are in part because the same work is being done, just one was in a factory and another on the site itself.
That said, it’s still impressive and a good idea really. If work is going to disrupt the area where a building is being built then this form of construction is a good way to minimise the impact on surrounding areas.
William Hortle
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 11:07 PMI’d imagine they’re using a ‘just in time’ logistics framework, so its likely that a large amount of the modules where fabricated during the build time…
rninne
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 10:33 AMWhen you think about it, the pre-fab time doesn’t really count. If the company has the stock for 5 buildings in it’s warehouses all ready to go, the only time the customer is concerned with is the time it takes for the building to got up from when he clicks the “add to cart” button.
I personally love this kind of building. I wish they would scale this down for residential 1 or 2 storey houses. I would love to be able to go online, personalise my home, with pre engineered interconnecting pieces, click buy, and have it rock up to my block a week or so later, and built in a day or two.
After seeing these sorts of vids, why the hell does it take builders months to do a 1 storey home? The building sector needs innovation like this.
Dennison
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 12:21 PMI really appreciate how the Chinese can do things so efficiently. I know it might be not up to 100% of some peoples standards, but when they can knock up something so quick, and with a certain amount of safety (eg earthquake resistant), I am very impressed.
I think It may be the way of the future, this will allow more affordable housing for more people.
darkAura
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 12:36 PMConstructed or finished doesn’t quite matter as this is still amazing. Even if it took another month to paint and finish off to the point people can live in it that is impressive.
I would love to see smaller scale pre readied buildings waiting in a store warehouse for disaster situations. You could have a couple of 10 stories up and running asap and they would be usable long after the initial disaster.
Pies
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 1:46 PMTrue. The problem would still be logistics though. There’s little chance of getting a tower crane set up in an earthquake aftermath.
darkAura
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 2:41 PMI don’t know building I just think it would be cool,
Do you really need one of those big cranes for the 10 story adaptations? You could build up a smaller one? I would also think the foundations would be less hassle? but perhaps you are right :-)
William Hortle
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 11:04 PMThe 15 story building link in the article, doesn’t use tower cranes at all. Just crane trucks. Also, the time to lay the foundations and prepare the site isn’t included here I don’t think. So might take a longer time then the initial emergency response, but an excellent quick fix to alleviate a shortage of housing after such a disaster.
morgs
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 1:56 PMis the crane on top supposed to be an attraction of some sort?
illogical
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 6:22 PMyeah, what happens to the crane?
Chinaman
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 10:23 PMTht crane will either be hauled out or used to clean windows and the shaft houses the 2 lifts…
gizmo
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 6:26 PMUmmm, boss…
Where does this extra nut belong?
Suprez
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 8:25 PMConstructed in 360 hours? NO.
Erected in 360 hours? YES
Preperation of the building’s foundations would have taken months in itself, let alone all the prefarbricated structure. None the less, it is still very impressive to ‘erect’ a building in such a short time.
Adam
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 8:50 PMI remember hearing about this new building technique, where a lot of the building is pre-assembled and then simply constructed at the site. Makes for ultra fast construction, and I suspect this building may have utilized many of these techniques.
james_whatsit
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 11:52 PMmagnitude 9!!? holy F@#$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
naveed
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 6:32 AMyes indeed its a good job it would have took lot of planning surely we can’t say it is totally constructed in 360 hrs it is errected/assembled in 360 hrs.this shows how the next generation construction will be and the cost compared to normal conventional building.
chugs
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 7:51 AMi just noticed that the site ran 24 hours a day, completely non-stop.
Seeing that the company has a distinct advantage considering the site is in the middle of no-where. I’m also sure any noise complaints would see some security police at your door.
In a western urban or central business district type environment there is no way the local governments would allow a 24 hour site.
But kudos to the Chinese. I was impressed to see the workers wearing safety gear, especially those working on the perimeter steel. The factory appeared clean and ordered. The workers appeared to be somewhat happy and proud of their work.
AshR
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 9:39 AMIkea are making prefab sky scrapers now?
DENAz
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 12:26 PMWouldn’t catch me staying there! Anything thrown up that fast would have me worried
Craig Ashley Russell
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 2:43 PMFried told me a story of when he was low grade project manager of a tower construction in Beijing 10 years ago. The reo (reinforced steel for the concrete pour) was signed off on level 10. He went to dinner expecting to come back and the pour started. Instead he returned early to find half the reo being removed and taken upstairs to level 11. When he told his supervisor about the practice he was well aware. All 9 lower levels only had half the required reo. My friend revoked all approvals he’d given and got on the first plane home.
Ed Powers
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 5:18 PMSo how do they get the crain down???
Shlep
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 6:48 PMthey don’t it now call a lift !
Chandan Siam
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 6:55 PMWonderful, impossible for us now, only chinese can do this within 360 hrs. chinese has tradition, 950 yrs wooden pagoda is still in good condition. 42 km bridge having 5200 pillars possible for chinese only.