Skyscraper in 19 Days: Chinese Build 57 Storey Skyscraper in Incredible 19 Days

Is it possible to build a skyscraper in 19 days? You would be forgiven for thinking that it would be an entirely impossible task, unless the trick to the question is that the skyscraper could be built at a scale of 1:1000 using Lego bricks.

Broad Sustainable Building, a Chinese construction company, has built a 57-story skyscraper in 19 days in the Hunan provincial capital of Changsha, The Guardian reported. The skyscraper has office space for 4,000 people, as well as 800 apartments and nineteen atriums. Office space and apartments go on sale in May 2015, DNA India reported.

The building, known as Mini Sky City, was constructed of steel and glass in a rectangular modular style. And it is the building’s modular style that greatly contributed to the speed at which it was constructed. Chen Xiangqian, an engineer at Broad Sustainable Building, said of the method.

“With the traditional method they have to build a skyscraper brick by brick, but with our method we just need to assemble the blocks.”

Modular high-rise apartment buildings have been constructed elsewhere in the world, including in the United States and parts of Britain. Advocates for the modular method say that it is a reliable and safe way of building skyscrapers in a short amount of time.

On the other hand, critics have noted that the modular building method emphasizes an overly uniform structure and will lead to boring and bland cityscapes. Personalized architecture is becoming more prevalent every year, and it will be interesting to see if the depersonalized modular skyscraper constructions will continue to be developed around the world.

The fine print of this news story is that the 19 days referred to in the ‘skyscraper in 19 days’ project are actually 19 working days, though it is hardly makes the project seem any less incredible. Indeed, the building company had to deal with severe weather conditions during the construction, leading to the project being completed in two rapid bursts, with work paused in between due to inclement weather.

The timelapse video above shows moment by moment how the incredible ‘skyscraper in 19 days’ structure was constructed at the astonishing rate of three storeys per day. The timelapse video has understandably become very popular on Chinese video websites since it was released, The Guardian reported.

Not content with being the unofficial world’s fastest builder after their ‘skyscraper in 19 days’ project’s completion, Broad Sustainable Building now has their sights set on creating the world’s tallest skyscraper at 220 floors in just 90 days. In fact, we reported on this back in November 2012.