China erects 15 story hotel in less than 6 days (video)(singularityhub.com)
singularityhub.com
China erects 15 story hotel in less than 6 days (video)
http://singularityhub.com/2011/01/25/china-erects-15-story-hotel-in-less-than-6-days-video/
11 comments
When you work with 'prefab' it's not rare to see a structure go up in an incredibly short time, I've seen a house 'erected' in less than a day. In the morning there was just a concrete pad and in the afternoon they were busy connecting the electrical wiring.
Still, that does not detract from the very impressive performance here. A carpenter from Canada once remarked that if a million guys all swing a hammer once that's a lot of work done. Throwing 200 workers at this likely didn't hurt either, the logistics and the choreography are what impress me most about this.
if you watch the video wait for the covering of the outside, it's like watching a slowed down flood-fill but with real life hardware. In spite of the 'no work injuries' reported some of the stills had me cringe, I'm pretty sure that a building inspector or safety officer on a crew from the US or Canada would have had a heart attack on the spot.
Still, that does not detract from the very impressive performance here. A carpenter from Canada once remarked that if a million guys all swing a hammer once that's a lot of work done. Throwing 200 workers at this likely didn't hurt either, the logistics and the choreography are what impress me most about this.
if you watch the video wait for the covering of the outside, it's like watching a slowed down flood-fill but with real life hardware. In spite of the 'no work injuries' reported some of the stills had me cringe, I'm pretty sure that a building inspector or safety officer on a crew from the US or Canada would have had a heart attack on the spot.
I wonder why prefabs houses aren't more common.
A friend of my parents was building a house. I asked him if he considered prefab, he had no idea what I was talking about.
A friend of my parents was building a house. I asked him if he considered prefab, he had no idea what I was talking about.
Prefab has a bunch of hurdles and it's kind of a chicken and egg problem right now.
A friend of mine used to work at Michelle Kaufmann's firm in East Bay, and what would happen is that there is such a low volume of prefab orders that they can't get the costs down enough to justify building prefab. Plus it's not standard "from scratch" construction, etc. It's really sad, and the firm shut down for a while in 2009 (I think they're back now though).
A friend of mine used to work at Michelle Kaufmann's firm in East Bay, and what would happen is that there is such a low volume of prefab orders that they can't get the costs down enough to justify building prefab. Plus it's not standard "from scratch" construction, etc. It's really sad, and the firm shut down for a while in 2009 (I think they're back now though).
Can you explain why "not from scratch" construction is a bad thing? AFAIK most houses these days are built from cookie-cutter plans.
Sorry, yes most houses are built from cookie-cutter plans. I guess I meant from scratch in that they're mostly built up with wood framing (simple to do), vs a lot of prefab which may require welding and more specialized skills to assemble the panels (harder to do, or at the very least less conventional).
In the US yes. In Europe most new houses use a concrete inner structure with a brick facade if they're family sized houses.
That makes them particularly well suited for prefab, a whole wall segment can be constructed including isolation, ducts, windows / doors etc and hoisted in to place by a crane in one movement. Because the brick is laid in the mould a bricklayer can work on a gantry under a roof instead of in the open air which means year round bricklaying instead of only when it's not freezing or raining (you can't lay brick in pouring rain).
Because the wall segments are made on a guaranteed flat surface a section is always going to be perfectly straight without any measurement at all.
Note that these are full bricks, not the typical 'slices' of brick used to give US houses a brick-like appearance over a wooden interior ('brick siding').
That makes them particularly well suited for prefab, a whole wall segment can be constructed including isolation, ducts, windows / doors etc and hoisted in to place by a crane in one movement. Because the brick is laid in the mould a bricklayer can work on a gantry under a roof instead of in the open air which means year round bricklaying instead of only when it's not freezing or raining (you can't lay brick in pouring rain).
Because the wall segments are made on a guaranteed flat surface a section is always going to be perfectly straight without any measurement at all.
Note that these are full bricks, not the typical 'slices' of brick used to give US houses a brick-like appearance over a wooden interior ('brick siding').
Ah that's great. I'm definitely slanted because of my experience in California, where earthquake regulations basically mean no masonry construction ever, and very rarely anything other than wood framing for residential houses.
Amish barn raising in one day...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pg_vpy2mxg.
It's all comes down to coordinated mobilization and logistical management. Seven cranes costs a lot of money, around the clock operations cost even more. Construction schedules are prepared to optimize the start of revenue streams with the cost of construction.
It's all comes down to coordinated mobilization and logistical management. Seven cranes costs a lot of money, around the clock operations cost even more. Construction schedules are prepared to optimize the start of revenue streams with the cost of construction.
Earlier discussion about the hotel construction at
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1901274
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1901274
And even earlier discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1895354
Lets just hope it doesn't fall over like that other one.
That said, it does remind me an awful lot of Total Annihilation when you get about fifty construction vehicles to make things damn near instantly.
That said, it does remind me an awful lot of Total Annihilation when you get about fifty construction vehicles to make things damn near instantly.
For an idea of how good these buildings actually are, check out this story about a 13 story building falling over in Shanghai: http://gizmodo.com/5304233/entire-new-13+story-building-tips...
I'd imagine after all the publicity that got, this one was built to higher standards. They claim to go well beyond the standards, and I don't doubt it for this particular project since they are using it for marketing.
The problem with the building that fell was obviously the foundation, which has to be done way in advance anyways.
The problem with the building that fell was obviously the foundation, which has to be done way in advance anyways.
Someone sent this around the office recently in response to an email that the "coffee break room" renovation was going to be extended an additional four weeks.
There's also a sometimes interesting webcam of a building being constructed (obviously not this one) in Hong Kong: http://202.94.229.4:81/view/view.shtml?id=3418&imagePath...
I picked up one of these from IKEA, it took me over 2 weeks to put together.
So?
Soon, humans will eclipse Hymenoptera in productivity.
So my conclusion is that the hard part of building a building is not erecting the steel skeleton and pouring the concrete. It's the foundation and details that take all the time, and the article omits any details about how long that process took for this hotel.