In early December, Liu Zhangning was tending her cabbage patch when she saw a tall yellow construction crane in the distance. At night, the work lights made it seem like day.
Fifteen days later, a 30-story hotel towered over her village on the outskirts of the city like a glass and steel obelisk.
"I couldn't really believe it," Liu said. "They built that thing in under a month."
A time-lapse video of the project in Changsha, which shows the prefabricated building being assembled on site, has racked up more than 5 million views on YouTube and left Western architects speechless.
"I've never seen a project go up this fast," said Ryan Smith, an expert on prefabricated architecture at the University of Utah.
In other countries, the most advanced prefab construction methods can reduce building times by a third to half, Smith said. The builders of the Changsha hotel did better, knocking one-half to two-thirds off the normal schedule.
"It's unfathomable," Smith said.
The warp-speed construction is a startling illustration of the building boom in China, where an exodus from the countryside to the cities has swelled the urban population by almost 400 million since 1990.
Click here to read more and to view a time lapse video of the construction. BD+C
Related Stories
Industrial Facilities | Feb 27, 2015
Massive windmill will double as mixed-use entertainment tower in Rotterdam
The 571-foot structure will house apartments, a hotel, restaurants, even a roller coaster.
Architects | Feb 27, 2015
5 finalists announced for 2015 Mies van der Rohe Award
Bjarke Ingels' Danish Maritime Museum and the Ravensburg Art Museum by Lederer Ragnarsdóttir Oei are among the five projects vying for the award.
Office Buildings | Feb 26, 2015
Using active design techniques to strengthen the corporate workplace and enhance employee wellness
The new Lentz Public Health Center in Nashville, Tenn., serves as a model of how those progressive and healthy changes can be made.
K-12 Schools | Feb 26, 2015
Should your next school project include a safe room?
Many school districts continue to resist mandating the inclusion of safe rooms or storm shelters in new and existing buildings. But that may be changing.
K-12 Schools | Feb 26, 2015
Construction funding still scarce for many school districts
Many districts are struggling to have new construction and renovation keep pace with student population growth.
K-12 Schools | Feb 26, 2015
D.C.'s Dunbar High School is world's highest-scoring LEED school, earns 91% of base credits
The 280,000-sf school achieved 91 points, out of 100 base points possible for LEED, making it the highest-scoring school in the world certified under USGBC’s LEED for Schools-New Construction system.
K-12 Schools | Feb 25, 2015
Polish architect designs modular ‘kids city’ kindergarten using shipping container frames
Forget the retrofit of a shipping container into a building for one moment. Designboom showcases the plans of Polish architect Adam Wiercinski to use just the recycled frames of containers to construct a “kids city.”
Cultural Facilities | Feb 25, 2015
Bjarke Ingels designs geodesic dome for energy production, community use
A new building in Uppsala, Sweden, will serve as a power plant during the winter and a venue for shows, festivals, and music events during the warm months.
Cultural Facilities | Feb 25, 2015
Edmonton considering 'freezeway' to embrace winter
If the new Edmonton Freezeway is constructed, residents will have an 11-km course that winds through the city and allows them to skate to work, school, and other city activities.
Building Team | Feb 24, 2015
Call for entries: 2015 Giants 300 survey
The annual Giants 300 Report ranks the top AEC firms in commercial construction, by revenue.
