Chinese company builds 57-storey skyscraper in 19 days

Chinese company builds 57-storey skyscraper in 19 days

A Chinese construction company have built a 57-story building within the space of just 19 days in Changsha, capital of southern China's Hunan Province. Xiao Changgen, vice general manager of the local pre-fabricated construction company Broad Group said 95% of the building parts were premade in the factory and at the site 1200 workers assembled the parts like stacking Lego.

The building, Mini Sky City, is 200 metres high. The total construction area is 180,000 square metres and contains space for 4,000 workers, 800 residential appartments and 3.6km of pedestrian streets.

Xiao said the building was designed to be 97 stories. After work began at the beginning of 2014 work was halted because the building was near the airport and its height had to be renegotiated. Work began again on February 1st this year and was completed on February 16th.

Sections of the building being constructed in the factory

In the first 7 days of the construction project workers built 20 stories

From February 1st to February 16th, workers built another 37 stories. "Due to the wet weather, the project was suspended for four days during February 1st to 16th. So the total building time was 19 days."

Xiao said the building was built at an average speed of 3 stories a day. "With traditional construction methods the building would have taken two years to complete."

The building is now having its insides decorated and could open to business very soon. The building's walls have 20cm thermal insulation, and the windows are quadruple-glazed. The building is 80% more energy efficient than traditional buildings.

Concerning the quality, Xiao is confident. "We had construction quake test at the China Academy of Building Research in 2009 and 2011, and figures showed that our buildings can withstand a 9M quake."

"The whole building used up 580,000 alloy screws, with the largest one 32mm in diameter, while the smallest one 16mm. On average one square metre used 3 screws."

"We used as little cement as we could."

The assembled building is also easy to be dismantled, like dismantling a lego building. "It doesn't need to be blasted, but just dissembled piece by piece. And 90% of the dismantled pieces could be recycled in the factory and reused."

The company built a six-floor building in one day at the 2010 Shanghai Expo, a 15-floor hotel in 6 days in 2010, and a 30-floor hotel in 15 days in 2011

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