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.

Photos via Youtube