China’s Broad Group erects 10-storey steel apartment building in 28 hours
A Chinese manufacturer has once again demonstrated the use of its modular construction method by erecting a 10-storey apartment block in a little over a day. Broad Group accomplished the feat in its home town of Changsha using bolt-together modular units, which it calls its “Living Building” system.
The company, which makes a range of air-conditioning, heating and prefabricated structural units, completed the job in 28 hours and 45 minutes, with the help of three cranes and a large on-site workforce. The Living Building system was designed to be easy to transport and install. Components can fit into a standard shipping container, and be bolted together on site. Wiring and ductwork are factory-fitted.
The system used Broad’s B-Core steel slabs as structural elements. The company says these are 10-times lighter and 100-times stronger than conventional alternatives, and can resist earthquakes and typhoons. It also claims that the cost is “lower than that of a carbon steel building” and has very low energy consumption. The company also claims that the strength and lightness of B-Core means that buildings of up to 200 storeys – supertall towers – could be made from the modules.
Sky City developer Zhang Yue erects world’s tallest prefab tower in 19 days
A developer in the southeastern Chinese province of Hunan has built a 57 storey skyscraper in just 19 days using its proprietary prefabrication technique. The 2 million square foot tower built by Broad Group, which is owned by Chinese air conditioning magnate Zhang Yue, contains 800 apartments and enough office space for 4,000 workers. The building was originally planned to be 97 stories high, but had to be reduced due to proximity to a nearby airport, the company said while publicising the completion of the tower earlier this month.
Zhang Yue is the man behind a proposed 838-metre-high prefabricated tower, called Sky City, which broke ground in 2013 and was supposed to be finished in a matter of months but has been stalled. Broad says it erected this new tower next to its plant in Changsha, Hunan province, at a rate of three floors every day – dubbing it “the new normal” for construction technique.
Broad claims its prefabrication technique is environmentally friendly because it avoided 15,000 truck deliveries and eliminates dust. Prefabrication also decreased the wasteful use of raw materials and saved time and money. The tower uses quadruple-thick glass and 99.9% sealed construction, which will help save energy and reduce carbon emissions, the company said. China is attempting to use many different solutions to combat its growing pollution problem.
