Chinese workers build 15-story hotel in just six days

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101112/bs_yblog_upshot/chinese-workers-build-15-story-hotel-in-just-six-days

by nano81 • 16 years ago

57 28 16 years ago

news.yahoo.com

TGJ• 16 years ago

I find it sad that this would never happen in the US. There is so much red tape to cut through, construction projects of just simple diners takes months. Getting small cites to act and do inspections takes planning since they rarely act with any sense of urgency plus the amount of inspections needed at every step of the project.

ataggart• 16 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQscE3Xed64

electromagnetic3• 16 years ago

I'd like to note that the foundation had already been laid. Considering the foundation work is largely the longest process in the building anyway, I don't see a 6-day building time as an improvement when you've still got to wait a month or more for the foundation to be laid and cured, then you really haven't advanced much.

Considering that they used 6 cranes and crews working throughout the night, this was still a 18-day regular construction for 8-hour work days. Assuming the 6 cranes were performing equally and to their max this would have been 108-days of construction using a regular Western crew with 1 crane. Roughly a total 30-week construction - sounds about typical to me for non-prefabricated construction, if not rather slow in man-hour comparison and we're talking opposed to unionized labor which is possibly the slowest construction workforce in existence.

jeffreyg• 16 years ago

> unionized labor which is possibly the slowest construction workforce in existence.

Any references for this statement? I have quite a few union friends who bust their asses 6 days a week doing construction, and would be kicked off their projects if they didn't..

ghshephard3• 16 years ago

I'm honestly curious, and not being critical here - How do you get 30 week construction from 108 days? Is a construction week 4 days?

Also, you do have to admit, that there are some inefficiencies involved in running shifts back-back, and using multiple cranes.

And the Project Plan and Management on this development must have been 10x what you would have seen in a typical six-nine month building project.

elai• 16 years ago

Many of the parts were prefabricated.

vb6• 16 years ago

There was a time when America was noted for record breaking achievements like this, Chicago towards the end of the 19th century springs to mind. They weren't too bothered back then about worker safety and the like, much like China today

dorianj• 16 years ago

The video claims there were no injuries in this project, though there's no way to tell how veracious that claim is.

davidw• 16 years ago

If you look at this, the US actually ranks better than China in terms of 'construction permits':

http://www.doingbusiness.org/

lotusleaf1987• 16 years ago

Already submitted with conversation:http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1895354

alanh• 16 years ago

The Chinese have Amish, too? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_raising

jws• 16 years ago

The volume of ignorance and bilateral racism in the youtube comments astounds.

Groxx• 16 years ago

Wait, seriously? This is youtube we're talking about.

raquo• 16 years ago

http://youtubesunshine.com/

lukeschlather• 16 years ago

Call me in 50 years and let me know whether or not that building still stands. I could build a Facebook clone in just six days too.

ghshephard3• 16 years ago

We had an in-and-out built in Redwood City in about 30 days. I thought that was a world-class amazing feat of engineering, project management, and construction. I'm somewhat in awe of the 15-story hotel project. I wonder if the process/margins/tools they used are repeatable, or whether it made sense just as a stunt.

varjag• 16 years ago

Now, do you want to be the first guest in this hotel? Honest?

kin• 16 years ago

I've witnessed something similar. During the 2008 Olympics, I studied abroad in Beijing and was pretty fortunate to stay at the BNU campus where they hosted the training complex for the U.S. Olympians. I saw with my own eyes a 5 story training complex built from the ground up in two weeks.

They did it in day/night shifts. One team worked day while one team worked night. At around the 12 hour mark they would switch off. They wore no helmets or masks and worked quite rapidly. There was maybe one or two hours when the building was not being worked on.

In the end, the product was impressive and sturdy. The building looked slick and I know for sure our athletes liked it. I saw the swim, fencing, and basketball teams walk in and out of it.

Judson• 16 years ago

Ironically, they will probably tear it down just as fast: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/china-proudly-demolishing-b...

illumen• 16 years ago

This reminds me of the german house build on Grand Designs that went up in a few days. Prefab is definitely quicker.

You can apply factory optimisations to prefabricate - and store materials.

This reduces dependencies, and thus delays, and also increases speed. It reduces injuries, waste, environmental impact, building disturbances for neighbours. The quality is also improved.

Make a modern factory at every site where you want to build something, or have the modern factory send prefabricated parts?

gukjoon• 16 years ago

On the seventh day, they rested.

On the eighth day, it falls over: http://gizmodo.com/5304233/entire-new-13+story-building-tips...

Maybe that red tape is there for a reason.

Chinese workers build 15-story hotel in just six days

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