China builds 57-storey skyscraper in 19 days
3 storeys a day was the pace employed by a Chinese developer to build an entire 57 storey skyscraper using prefabricated bricks. The original plans were more ambitious, to tower the building to 220 storeys but were culled due to concerns of being too close to the airport. Nevertheless, the mixed use building has 800 apartments and office space enough to equip 4000 people.
Adding to the feat, the building claims to be environmentally friendly as it reduced the use of concrete trucks by about 15,000 and employed quadruple thick glass and tight construction keeping with China’s pollution problem in mind.
Having earned brickbats for its copycat construction and environmental degradation all through the previous decade, Chinese developers are doing a complete volte face. Chinese company WinSun made news in March 2014 for 3D printing 10 houses in 24 hours. This year, it further demonstrated the efficacy of its technology with a five-storey apartment building and a 1,100 square metre (11,840 square foot) villa, complete with decorative elements inside and out, on display at Suzhou Industrial Park.
All this was achieved by using proprietary 3D printers that uses a mixture of ground construction and industrial waste, such as glass and tailings, around a base of quick-drying cement mixed with a special hardening agent. This process claims to save between 30-60% of construction waste while cutting the production time between 50-70% and labour costs by between 50-80%. WinSun is now setting its sight far and high and plan to employ its technology for bridges and high rise buildings.
Our perspective
Like all industries, the construction industry is seeing rapid advancements in technology, but unlike most industries, the construction industry has relied on age-old techniques for a very long time.
This is about to change and very soon in the future we will start witnessing the modern marvels of construction engineering. The buildings and structures of the future will be constructed faster, probably in a matter of days with robotic helpers and drones. The engineering companies will complete the whole buildings from scratch in a week and leave the spaces inside for personalisation by the inhabitants.
For smaller buildings or retrofitting, an individual may be able to do a lot on their own with their own 3D printers and some borrowed equipment.
One of the significant features of the next generation buildings will be self-sustainability and green materials. The construction material and practices will be increasingly environmentally friendly and the structures will be self-sustainable for the energy, water and waste management needs.
Gazing through the crystal ball
- Construction industry will offer newer opportunities in micro enterprise and entrepreneurship. In a country like India, it will offer a boost to entrepreneurship.
- Dependence on construction workers and the builders will significantly reduce along with greatly reduced time of construction, inconvenience and pollution. This will give a good boost to the construction industry.
- The traditional participants such as manual labour (skilled and unskilled) and the widest array of construction hardware shops will also have to change dramatically.
