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China Plans To Build The World’s Tallest Building In 90 Days

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Re: China Plans To Build The World’s Tallest Building In 90 Days

#71

Post by WiseWeasel »

brudgers wrote: post #42
joshuahedlund wrote: post #16

My bias wants to make some remark about unions and/or regulations inhibiting construction innovation in the US, but I have no idea if that's actually true... is there progress being made in the US (faster construction? more prefab? etc) or does China's progress simply come with quality sacrifices that are pretty unacceptable in the US?

I believe China has significantly more union members than the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-China_Federation_of_Trade_U...

That's only if you consider the ACFTU a union in any meaningful sense of the word. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions doesn't.

Re: China Plans To Build The World’s Tallest Building In 90 Days

#72

Post by brudgers »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #64
brudgers wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not particularly abnormal during rapid real-estate development cycles. The scale is unusual, but then again, China is the first country with more than a billion people.

I'd understand if they were demolishing decrepit buildings and building new and better buildings. That doesn't seem the case. It's plausible that none of what we have learnt so far applies very well to extremely large populations. I still find it strange and super inefficient.

When it comes to efficiency in the real-estate market, efficiency is based on the highest and best use of the particular location. Ownership patterns and the regulatory processes for entitlement are the significant impediments to redevelopment of prime locations. These are less of an issue in China.

To some extent, the web is a useful analogy, we don't blink when a web property is redeveloped - a ten year old website is virtually untenable for commercial ventures. Real-estate is subject to similar forces to those which motivate Google to rewrite their search page.

Re: China Plans To Build The World’s Tallest Building In 90 Days

#74

Post by metronegative »

twelvechairs wrote: post #58
ecaron wrote: post #28

It is hard to read this story without thinking about the massive scale of "we just built this building, but we're going to tear it down because it is a deathtrap" demolitions that are happening in Beijing and the other populous cities in China that are still growing at obscene rates: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/china-proudly-demolishing-b...

Of course the classic example of 'build a big building to look good, but so poorly that it will never really be usable' is the North Korean Ryugong Hotel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel We are in another age now though. I'm not sure anyone will quite reach the same levels of stupidity.

They're actually finishing it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel#Construction_re...

There aren't any pictures of the insides however so this might be a classic case of North Korea "Look What It Looks Like On The Outside" that we're supposed to believe.

Re: China Plans To Build The World’s Tallest Building In 90 Days

#76

Post by Volpe »

tokenadult wrote: post #13

"According to BSB chief executive officer, Zhang Yue, he said that the company is confident that the government will give the go ahead for this project." I wonder if this building project, which the submitted link says has not even received government approval, will go the way of high-speed rail in China: first, a lot of gee-whiz headlines; second, deadly failures. Shoddy construction of buildings led to considerable…

But you don't read between the lines with USA Today, and The Australian?

"Unbiased press" = oxymoron

Re: China Plans To Build The World’s Tallest Building In 90 Days

#77

Post by ShabbyDoo »

The claims of environmentalism seem laughable. Surely the cost in terms of increased material requirements, wasted space due to 104 elevators, etc. makes this building a bad choice w.r.t. the environment compared to constructing, say, 10 buildings of 1/10th the size?

Re: China Plans To Build The World’s Tallest Building In 90 Days

#78

Post by wtvanhest »

brudgers wrote: post #39
2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also have the benefit of the rest of the developed world's experience of how to plan cities. Do they really only plan to use these large buildings for only 10 years and then rebuild? Is this normal for the rest of the world?

It's not particularly abnormal during rapid real-estate development cycles. The scale is unusual, but then again, China is the first country with more than a billion people.

No tall building (above 3 floors wood frame) would get anywhere close to economic viability if the plan was to only leave it up for 10 years. Think about how many buildings that are within 20 years old that have been demolished in the united states. The number would be insanely low.
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