China will likely build a 220 story building that will be the tallest building in the world. It should be completed in January 2013 with several months of factory manufacturing of the parts, site preparation and then onsite assembly over 90 days. Projected cost for the building is RMB 4 billion (US$628 million).
A previous 666 meter design for the Sky City One building was for 1.2 million square meters (12 million square feet) of space for residential apartments, retail, offices, restaurants, schools and a myriad of other facilities. The building will be manufactured in a factory and assembled on the construction site. Additionally, the tower will have the capacity for 70,000 to 110,000 residents.
It is projected to cost about $55 per square foot. A 1000 square foot unit would have a builder cost of $55,000. If the factories in China produced the components and then shipped them to say New York and then the price was doubled for on site assembly. A 3000 square foot condo could be produced for $330,000.
Major Chinese cities like Shanghai and Beijing have similar property prices to New York. Will the Sky City builders get people in China to leave the suburbs and lengthy commutes to live in a Sky City tower with equal or more space for lower prices ?
Reach for the sky: the world’s tallest buildings, once the 838-meter Sky City is completed, projected for January 2013.
The Empire State Building was built in 410 days in 1930 and 1931 It has a roof height of 1,250 feet (381 meters), and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft (443.2 m) high. The Empire State Building is currently undergoing a $550 million renovation, with $120 million spent in an effort to transform the building into a more energy efficient and eco-friendly structure. It has 2,248,355 sq ft (208,879 m2) of floor area (about one/sixth the plan for Sky City One.)
The renovation will cost almost as much as the whole Sky City.
Empire State Building
The Empire State building was built quickly relative to other modern methods.
The 92 story Trump International Hotel and Tower, also known as Trump Tower Chicago and locally as the Trump Tower, is a skyscraper condo-hotel in downtown Chicago, Illinois. It was built for $847 million and was completed in 2009 after 4 years of construction. Floor area is 2,600,000 square feet (240,000 m2). One fifth the area or less of the Sky City One plan.
Addressing Peoples Objections to Sky City One or Other China Development
The speed of construction means that it will be shoddy and more prone to catastrophic failure. They have tested a large model of the 30 story to a simulated category 9 earthquake.
Other buildings that people in China are living in now are probably less safe in the event of an earthquake.
People feel that China is urbanizing too fast.
China has been urbanizing at 15 million people per year for over 20 years. Urban unemployment is at 4.1%. Europe builds slower and has about 11% unemployment or more. The US builds slower and has 8% unemployment. Changsa (the city where Sky City One is going) is adding over 100,000 new residents every year.
China is making too many buildings or high speed rail (10,000 kilometers of high speed rail for $300 billion) and this will be wasteful.
The Central Subway is an extension of the Muni Metro light rail system in San Francisco, California, from the Caltrain commuter rail depot at 4th and King streets to Chinatown. The subway is the second phase of the Third Street Light Rail Project. Ground was broken for the new route on February 9, 2010, and is currently scheduled for completion by 2019. Due to the capital cost ($1.578 billion for the 1.7 mile light rail line), the Central Subway project has come under criticism from transit activists for what they consider to be poor cost-effectiveness. In particular, they note that Muni’s own estimates show that the project would increase Muni ridership by less than 1% (the whole SF Muni system has daily weekday ridership of Daily 731,400, so they are looking to add 7000 daily riders) and yet by 2030 be adding $15.2 million a year to Muni’s annual operating deficit.
About 10 years and over double the cost of Sky City One. Muni rides for 7000 people versus housing, stores and work offices for 100,000 and commuting via high speed elevators within the building for most of them.
The US has twice as much military as it really needs for defence. So if there is $300 billion per year of overspending what will be the economic value of those systems and military forces when compared to 10,000 kilometers of not totally fully self sustaining (from fares) highspeed rail. High-speed rail service in China was introduced on April 18, 2007, and daily ridership has grown from 237,000 in 2007 and 349,000 in 2008 to 492,000 in 2009 and 796,000 in 2010.
The factory mass production method has not been proven out enough on smaller buildings. A factory able to produce ten million square meters of buildings was made last year and they have six factories in China now. They will have built about 20 million square meter of buildings using these system by the time November rolls around. Equivalent to 200 fifty story buildings. They have hired experienced architects from Dubai and other places to design Sky City.
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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