Tallest Building in the World – Sky City to be assembled on site in 90 days in Changsha, China from Nov, 2012 to Jan, 2013

Broad Sustainable Building (BSB), a construction company based in Hunan, is planning to erect an 838-meter building called Sky City (天空城市) later this year in Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan Province.

Projected cost for the building is RMB 4 billion (US$628 million).

Once completed, the 220-story structure will surpass Burj Khalifa to become the tallest structure in the world.

The building will also outshine the 632-meter Shanghai Tower (上海中心).

BSB inked an agreement last week with authorities from Wangcheng district in Changsha, where the building will stand, but the project is still pending approval from central government.

In an interview with Xinhua, BSB chief executive officer Zhang Yue (张跃) said the company plans to break ground on Sky City in November 2012, and that the tower will be completed in January 2013.

The company is confident the government will green-light the project.

BSB is renowned for its eye-opening construction efficiency. Its portfolio includes assembling a 15-story building in six days in June 2010, and erecting a 30-story hotel in 360 hours in December 2011.

According to Chinese newspaper 21 Century Business Herald, the total investment in Sky City is RMB 4 billion (US$628 million), compared with US$1.5 billion on Burj Khalifa and US$2.2 billion on Shanghai Tower.

Getting central government approval should be a simple matter for the company that built China’s Shanghai Expo 2010 pavilion.

In New York Freedom tower has already cost $3.8 billion and is not completed yet. Freedom Tower is looking at a late 2013 completion.

Broad Group and factory mass produced skyscrapers was number 8 on my list of mundane singularity technologies.

They plan to capture 30% of the world’s construction industry, which will be achievable by dominating construction in China alone. As noted they have factories and franchisees in India and are talking to companies in many other countries. This shift will transform the skylines of the cities of the world, which is still rapidly urbanizing from 50% to 60% by 2020.

Reach for the sky: the world’s tallest buildings, once the 838-meter Sky City is completed, projected for January 2013.

There are currently six factories in China in different provinces. BROAD Group also franchisees in India. These franchisees have made full payment for the transfer of technology which costs US$34 million for a population of 10 million and US$50 million for a population of 50 million.

93% of the building materials are manufactured in the factory. The company welcomes global franchisees to adopt this model and build such factories locally. In supporting the company’s value to be green, the factory should be located no more than 500km from the construction site.

Broad Group’s methods reduce the work hazards faced by construction workers on the site, wastage and traffic jams around construction.

Construction companies have lower interest costs for buildings that take only a few weeks instead of two year or more.

We have been closely tracking China’s Broad Group and their prefabricated factory mass produced ‘Can be Built’ skyscraper technology. 11 months ago they had earthquake certified a scale model of their 30 story building. They have built an actual 30 story building in 15 days at the end of 2011.

This technology will impact the skylines of cities in the future. It will be lowering costs by three times to ten times. It will become affordable to build three times higher for the same price. Currently the system is 20-30% lower cost than competing Chinese construction, but pricing is a lot lower when compared to the costs in developed countries.

China’s Broad Group site for their Can Be Built technology is here

This is one of the key technologies to watch for the next decade or two. The reason is the construction methods use far less cement and are more energy efficient. They will also enable faster urbanization of the developing world (not just China.) With state backing Broad Group will have this technology in use for more high rise commercial construction by 2020. This is part of the mundane singularity of technologies that mostly exist now and can high impact on the world.

The buildings are five times more energy efficient in operation and use about 6 times less cement.

They plan to build one hundred and fifty 30-story apartment building, hotel, office plans using the new system. They built a 1.33-million-square meter “NO.1 Sustainable Building Factory” and it produces 10 million square meters of mass produced skyscrapers (about 100 million square feet) each year. The 30 story building is 183000 square feet so the factory can produce about 500 of the 30 story building each year and many more factories will be built.

The Changsha Broad Air Conditioning Company previously unveiled designs for a 200-storey Sky City tower, a sustainable mixed use project. At 666 meters tall, the building will house 1.2 million square meters (12 million square feet) of space for residential apartments, retail, offices, restaurants, schools and a myriad of other facilities. The building will be manufactured in a factory and assembled on the construction site. Additionally, the tower will have the capacity for 70,000 to 110,000 residents. It will use 400 kilograms (1000 pounds of material) per square meter). 480,000 tons of building. Even with reducing the occupancy by half so that units are 1320 square feet instead of 660 square feet the amount of material is 12 tons per person for 40,000 people. The Broad Group building also includes offices and retail shopping. Instead of being 6 times more efficient with material it is more like 8-10 times, since it is replacing 72 tons of house and the extra buildings for offices and shops. It is 20 times more efficient if the higher occupancy levels are used.

Other Broad Group Technology

Non-electric air conditioning withstood the world’s toughest stress test serving over 250 pavilions in the largest, crowdest, hottest, and most dynamic architectural site. Achieving “zero fault” operation for 6 months, contributing to a successful Expo. Also saved 73,000 tons of CO2 emissions, and realized “Low Carbon Expo”.

Successfully developed super-size “ Heat Recovery Fresh Air Unit”, realizing 99.9% air purification efficiency, ensuring abundant fresh air supply and high efficiency heat recovery.

Precious Plans for a 666 meter tall skyscraper

A Chinese company developed new factory prebuilt construction that can make a 15 story building in 6 days plans to build the second tallest building in the world over 6 months. 93% of the construction work is done in the factory vs at most 40% in western countries.

The Changsha Broad Air Conditioning Company has unveiled designs for the 200-storey Sky City tower, a sustainable mixed use project. At 666 meters tall, the building will house 1.2 million square meters of space for residential apartments, retail, offices, restaurants, schools and a myriad of other facilities. The building will be manufactured in a factory and assembled on the construction site. Additionally, the tower will have the capacity for 70,000 to 110,000 residents.

Previous cost estimates were 7,000 yuan to 8,000 yuan per square meter. The new cost estimate looks like 3000 to 4000 yuan per square meter. The company then adds its profit margin and sells its properties for around 5,000 yuan per sq m – or less than half the price of properties in major cities outside the city center. This would convert to a 660 square foot unit costing about US$50,000. Numbeo has Shanghai cost of living and Shanghai apartment prices are currently three to six times as high to buy as these apartments would be

Comfort of Skycity
• 100% fresh air, no mixed with return air, eliminate infection. 3-stage filtered fresh air , 99% nano-particulates be filtered. Indoor air is 20-100 times cleaner than outdoor air. Central vacuuming system keeps indoor air quality.
• Space blocks and all rooms remain at 20~27 ℃ all year round
• The clear height of residences and office is 2.8m, the clear height of space blocks are 5.6m, 9m, 12m respectively.
• Four 4meter wide streets start from the ground to the floor 121 at 400m, the total length of street is 12km, shops, agriculture markets, handcraft shops, restaurants, amusement parks, sports centers, natatorium, cinemas, opera houses, museums, libraries, training centers, schools, kindergartens, clinics, banks, police stations, etc. on both sides of street, same as city downtown. Botanical garden, natural parks, fishponds, waterfalls, sand beach can be found in some floors, same as the suburban.
• 16 large observation elevators and 31 high-speed elevators can serve 30,000 people every hour.

Safety
• Level 9 earthquake resistance, scale model will be tested by national authorized institution.
• BROAD unique technologies “diagonal bracing, light weight, factory-made” ensure the
highest earthquake resistance level with minimum materials.
• Trapezoidal construction structure corresponds the law of mechanics, which can withstand earthquake and storm.
• Sky gardens locate on floor 71, 121, 156, 176 and 191(12,000m2 in total), also function as the helipads, which are able to evacuate tens of thousand people during fire emergency, provide extra fire protection than conventional skyscrapers.

Energy Conservation
• 150mm exterior insulated walls, triple-paned windows, exterior solar shading, interior window insulation and heat recovery fresh air, 80% more energy efficient than conventional buildings.
• Adopting “distributed energy system”, turbines provide power independently, exhaust from turbines is the source for cooling, heating and sanitary hot water. 50% more energy efficient than the power grid.
• Indoor HVAC is controlled by occupancy sensor, fan speed will be automatically adjusted to the lowest load when people left.
• Elevator generates electricity when ascending unload and descending full load, also choose the floor outside the elevator, and other electricity saving methods can save 75% more electricity than conventional elevator.
• LED lamp, 90% more energy efficient than incandescent lamp and 50% more energy efficient than fluorescent lamp.
• Separated drainage system, rain water is used for plant irrigation, bathing water will be directly drained after settled, bathroom sewage and kitchen waste go to biogas tank, biogas is used as fuel for air conditioning, and solid wastes become organic fertilizers.

Sustainability
• Annual energy conservation 60,000 ton oil equivalent
• Saving 600,000 ton construction materials
• Saving 1.4 sq. kilometers land (volume ratio 50)
• On-site construction waste is less than 1% of the total weight
• Zero raise dust on-site
• Zero water consumption on-site
• Recycle processes of living garbage from the building
• All steel structure, reuse after abandoned

The company’s presentation of Sky City, incl. specs and drawings.

Related – Kingdom Tower

Burj Khalifa and Sky-high City will both be surpassed by Jeddah’s 1000 meter tall Kingdom Tower, which is being developed by backers including Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud’s Kingdom Holding Company and Saudi Binladen Group.

With a total construction area of over 500,000 sq m, Kingdom Tower will be a mixed-use building featuring a Four Seasons hotel, serviced apartments, office space, luxury condominiums and an observatory.

Construction, which started earlier this year, is expected to take a total of 63 months.

The contract for construction of the tower was signed with Saudi Binladen Group for SAR4.6bn (US$1.2bn) with the overall estimated cost of the Kingdom City Jeddah project projected at SAR75bn (US$20bn).

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