Concrete Thoughts

30-Story Hotel in 15 days

With China being touted to as the next leaders in the global construction market, it’s no surprise that they are in a hurry to build. We have heard stories and read articles about how fast the boom is taking off in China, but this project puts things in perspective.

In  Hunan province, The Ark Hotel prefabriacted 30-story hotel was put together in 15 days. We’ve also read many reports that the construction only took 6 days…so while the final count remains unconfirmed, this is still something quite amazing. The critical factor in reducing build time was the prefabricated components, that has drastically reduced the construction cycle. The crew worked around the clock in shifts for 24 hours. In all fairness, the fabrication of various sections and the foundation work were not included in the time lapse.

“The company said in documents that the Ark Hotel, for example, used just 53 kilos of steel and 43 kilos of concrete for each square meter of construction – comparatively, the Beijing Library used 180 kilos of steel and 355 kilos of cement for each square meter of construction.” – TreeHuger

The hotel is sustainable with features such as triple-glazed windows, thermal insulation and solar collectors. The building can also withstand an earthquake up to a magnitude of nine. Best of all? Construction costs came in at only one third for Chinese skyscrapers. Amazing speed, cost efficient and sustainable. Quite the feat for our Chinese builders.

Here’s an interesting video that conpares the Ark Hotel with a local stadium roof in Vancouver, BC.