BiggerPockets

Check out this incredible video of a 30 story building that was built in 15 days in China.

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According to Rich Pollett:

A 30-story tall, 183,000-square-foot hotel built in just 360 hours. Just 15 days.

It was erected near the Dongting lake, in the Hunan Province, China, by Broad Group, a Chinese construction company specialized 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 9 magnitude 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 6-inch thick glass curtain wall insulation and four-paned windows with built-in shades, a heat recovery system and 3-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.

Thoughts?

It is pretty incredible, @Ryan B.. I do wonder how long it took to prefab all the parts, but regardless, the actual construction/assembly in such a short period of time is remarkable.

Wow...the U.S. just can't compete with that

That's an understatement!

This video really has inspired me; it's time to take a trip to China. :D

Zachary Construction built the Hilton Palacio del Rio on the San Antonio River Walk in a similar fashion in 1968. It differs in that the first 4 stories and the core were constructed with conventional techniques. Then, the remaining 17 floors (of 21 total) were placed as prefabricated, individual turn-key rooms over the course of 41 days. So, not quite as fast and tall as the new Chinese hotel, 44 years later, but I'd say the U.S. can be plenty competitive when it needs to be.

Here is an elaborating article:

http://www.modular.org/htmlpage.aspx?htmlpageid=400

China has a need for more Hotels and this looks like a good way to go.

I know in Japan in ultra high density building areas they leave the cranes on top of the buildings in many cases. It doesn't look like there is a need for that on the subject site.