urbanMSP

Okay, I really needed to get some other people's thoughts on this. A few months back, I read about a Chinese company that built a 30 story tower in a few days.

Earlier today, I stumbled across this:
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/201 ... in-90-days

The world could have a new tallest building in a few months, and it hasn't even started construction yet. I absolutely dumbfounded by this concept. What do you guys think of this practice? Apparently, it can keep costs way down, and construction times are FAR faster. But could this type of architecture pose the threat of becoming widespread and destroying the character of skylines? What are some other downsides to this? For the record, I actually think the building in that rendering looks quite nice. I'm just not sure how it will translate into reality.

Looks like and ugly, bulky Sears tower.

WOW! that's amazing!

Just think what type of benefits that could have here in the twin cities where we don't get earthquakes! It would be great option for urban low income housing and would easily increase the density of downtown if we could simply "throw up" 5-6 30 floor buidings in a few weeks! I hope the developers take a closer look to see if it does seem as good of a deal as it claims to be. Thanks for sharing.

Talk about sacrificing design for speed. I rather hope Minneapolis doesn't build anything like that. The Burj Khalifa would put that building to shame for ages, even if it is shorter.

Here's an example of a 30-story hotel building the company put up in 15 days. The "ticky-tacky" skyscraper, eh? It appears to be exceedingly uniform throughout, though that's not very surprising for a hotel. The big question to me is how much flexibility they can build into the process for making rooms of varying sizes and designs, as well as making an exterior that isn't completely flat and repetitive (not that regular skyscrapers are all that different much of the time). It looks like they only started counting the hours after the foundation was completed and the first structural bits went into place, so saying it can be done in 15 days is an exaggeration.

Watch that crane spin! It looks like a pretty big space surrounding the structure gets used for staging, so I doubt this building probably could go up as fast in a crowded, congested area hemmed in by other buildings. But maybe it doesn't matter if you can do it quickly -- just shut down some roads and go at it.

I wonder how well the utilities work in this building. There isn't an obvious utility floor about halfway up as I would expect. Aren't they usually required about once every dozen floors?

[BBvideo 560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjGhHl-W8Wg[/BBvideo]

Talk about sacrificing design for speed. I rather hope Minneapolis doesn't build anything like that. The Burj Khalifa would put that building to shame for ages, even if it is shorter.

http://www.citiesarchitecture.com/Legac ... th-001.jpg

Every metro area will have some "ugly" buildings but if this is a way to bring down cost for some lower end buildings like low income housing and corporations with limited funds then it could increase the density of downtown! I know a lot of people complaining about the 222 Henn. buidling being to short for the location. Well decreased costs and decreased construction times would be revolutionary! I'm not saying lets build every building this way I'm just saying let's say the technology works here then maybe build 6-10 buildings between 20-30 floors would be fast way to increase density. Surly you can see SOME benefit in that right?

Unfortunately no, I can't. I am a big proponent in Quality over Quantity. I'd rather have Minneapolis grow density slowly over 20 years than force it in 90 days. People 100 years from now would be especially thankful.

Settling for low quality every once in a while is like McDonalds saying... we had to use a few rotten potatoes to get fries to everyone. It just doesn't/shouldn't happen... but Yes, it does (33 south 6th...) . And no one is ever that happy about it.

This is simply amazing. A Chinese company wants to built the worlds tallest skyscraper in only 90 days!

Check out how they built a 30 story pre-fad skyscraper in 15 days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotatio ... dpf-MQM9vY

Do the Nate Hood Tornado Towers count as pre-fab skyscrapers?

http://nowwhataretheydoing.blogspot.com ... n-70s.html

Nah, only 4 stories, not nearly tall enough. Oh, apparently the real name was the "Valley View Apartments":

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archi ... owers.html

I think people are missing the point here. This company has found a way to build tall buildings in a matter of days with a steel structure that's extremely light weight and strong. If a building can go up 3-5 time faster, the developer stands to save a significant amount of money. But keep in mind that we have might higher standards when it comes to design. Just because the frame of the building is cheap does not mean that the facade and interior need to be cheap as well.

Imagine building the Carlyle in 5-6 months rather than 18. Then imagine units starting at 100K. Bringing down construction costs and increasing density more quickly isn't a bad thing. It would allow the city to maximize resources and would help build neighborhoods which are filled with people instead of empty sidewalks.

Just keep in mind that the rules of economics would still be at play. If there were condo buildings, developers would still need to pre-sell a certain number of units before they are approved for a loan to start construction. This would keep the market in check since new construction would be limited by consumer demand.

And let's also remember that the majority of people in the metro area don't want to live in a condo or apartment in downtown Minneapolis. People love having a back yard, a two car garage and still think of downtown as that palce they visit a few times a year.

That Chinese world's-tallest-building-in-90-days project, Sky City, has gotten approval to begin construction this month.

http://singularityhub.com/2013/06/04/ch ... y-90-days/

Well if nothing else, this is going to be interesting to watch. Here's hoping it doesn't kill anyone!

I would also like to add that I am skeptical on the topic of finishings. Sure, they might be able to get the structure up in this timeframe, but what about utilities? Drywall? All the amenities they're proposing? Surely the move-in date can't be 91 days after groundbreaking.

Ugh.

I would also like to add that I am skeptical on the topic of finishings. Sure, they might be able to get the structure up in this timeframe, but what about utilities? Drywall? All the amenities they're proposing? Surely the move-in date can't be 91 days after groundbreaking.

Same here. However, if you watch the video of the 30-story building, it shows that a good portion of those finishings are in place before the modules are lifted into place. There's even a quick shot of a construction worker (in coveralls and a hard hat!) tidying up the bedding in one of the apartments. I'm by no means convinced, but at least some of the interior work is done ahead of time. These guys are either brilliant engineers or brilliant marketers.

I recently taken on a tour of our hvac company's shop where they are now building 3d models of the entire utility systems for new buildings and pre-fabricating whole wall sections with the utilities in them already. The sections I looked at were for a medical facility- so it wasn't just electrical, plumbing and hvac ducting, but also had medical air lines as well. They showed how they crane in this pre-fab wall section and someone just has to use a coupling to attach the utility hook ups to the walls below and next to it. It is actually pretty interesting and because they use CAD software and pre-make the segments, it takes almost no time to assemble. I am sure they are using similar design and pre-fab techniques, but just saying the utilities are not as large of a barrier as you would think. For electrical they would just wire a central core and then plug in each pre-wired section into the breaker panel.

Semi related: growth in China and India.

"China will build the equivalent of New York every other year for the next 20 years"

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1682111/the- ... magery#-13

Cool article

Sky City in China is apparently now aiming to be done in 9 months instead of 90 days. They've started on it, with completion planned for April 2014. The Atlantic Cities has another writeup including a number of diagrams:

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design ... nths/6317/

Another type of speed building, using giant 3D printers extruding a concrete/glass mix to form prefabricated walls and other building pieces. Looks (literally) pretty rough now, but I can see how it could improve. Hard to say if it's much better than other pre-fab techniques, though (I'm not sure if the resulting buildings had any plumbing/electrical connections, for instance).

http://www.gizmag.com/china-winsun-3d-p ... use/31757/

Video:



In other (non-)news, the Sky City project seems all but dead.

The biggest case of modular construction in this country, Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, isn't doing so well: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/19/nyreg ... c=rss&_r=1

They're behind schedule, so the next 3 buildings will be built conventionally, but there's hopes that the process will continue to be refined and when they start the 5th, that will be modular.