6 ms·

Video: 15 story Ark Hotel built in 6 days in Shanghai

88 points by lotusleaf1987 16y ago

hippich 16y ago
Well. It's not built. Ark Hotel Shell built in 6 days. But still - WOW!
- willheim 16y ago
  Actually, more like "shell assembled in 6 days". To build it they needed to first prepare the foundation which can take several weeks prior just to get it solid and firm enough to support such a structure. While that is happening they need to be crafting the panels and components in a factory. Then they can bring it to the site and start assembling. With enough labour on site it can be done. Pre-fab is far more advanced in Asia than here and in places like Japan a house can be assembled and ready to move in within 3 days (fully finished). Toyota builds AWESOME steel frame homes that are earthquake resistant and insulated for sound and energy efficiency. Still, the land has to be prepped first and that takes the most time (no good to have an earthquake proof structure on a poor/soft/shifting foundation). Now... what we need to see is what that hotel looks like in 5/10/15 years (doubtful it was built for a lifespan beyond 25 years as most prefabs are built with short life expectancy and planned replacement).
smackfu 16y ago
Was there some reason to build it in 6 days with a half dozen cranes and working all night? Was it to show off for the Shanghai Expo?
- robryan 16y ago
  Maybe thats the most efficient amount without getting in each others way, the faster they complete this structure the faster they can move to the next. I'd assume over there they don't have many problems staffing a 24/7 worksite.
- ximeng 16y ago
  They didn't work all night. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1895987 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1895987 According to their website they're an air-conditioning company, based in Changsha, providing products to 70 different countries: http://www.broad.com:8089/english http://www.broad.com:8089/english http://www.broad.com http://www.broad.com (Chinese) Not entirely sure why they've got into building, but they emphasise the sustainability of their construction technique. The owner likes to show off going by his private jet, the fact he built a palace in the style of Versailles, and the 130 foot pyramid on the company campus, picture in the impressive article below. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/03/mr-zhang-builds-his-dream-town/5616/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/03/mr-zhang... Chinese version: http://www.broad.com:8089/news/read.asp?id=226 http://www.broad.com:8089/news/read.asp?id=226 More details on the building in the video at http://www.broad.com:8089/english/down/en_kj.pdf http://www.broad.com:8089/english/down/en_kj.pdf
jhancock 16y ago
Forget about the time to complete. The real advancement here is the use of insulation!!! Most Shanghai structures are poured concrete with zero insulation. Cool video.
narrator 16y ago
I read a couple of specialized news blogs written mostly by people out of Hong Kong about things going on in China. It's pretty amazing story involving 1/6th of humanity. Here's some good blogs if you want to follow along: http://www.zonaeuropa.com/weblog.htm http://www.zonaeuropa.com/weblog.htm http://www.chinahush.com/ http://www.chinahush.com/ http://www.danwei.org/ http://www.danwei.org/ There are many others. A good movie to watch is "Manufactured Landscapes" if you want to see the dark side of all this. Also, "Dwelling Narrowness" is a good mainland Chinese drama. Some versions on the Internet are available with fan contributed English subtitles. It does a pretty good job IMHO of talking about a lot of the apolitical transformations that are going on in Chinese society.
- lotusleaf1987 16y ago
  I agree that Manufacture Landscapes is an incredibly fascinating documentary, I recommend it to anyone interested in seeing where their consumer goods come from and inevitably end up. And thanks for the links! I'm currently checking them out.
- tlack 16y ago
  It's quite a coincidence that you both mention Manufactured Landscapes and I happen to be currently watching it on Sundance. I'm a fan of Burtynsky but had never heard of the movie before. Synchronicity.
  - alexqgb 16y ago
    One more vote for Manufactured Landscapes. The forever shot in the iron factory is a major revelation.
yread 16y ago
That doesn't look like Shanghai
- mchouza 16y ago
  A commenter says it's at Changsha: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Changsha&sll=28.22818,112.033081&sspn=1.045401,1.783905&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Changsha,+Hunan,+China&ll=28.22818,112.939453&spn=1.045401,1.783905&z=10 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&#38...
  - chrischen 16y ago
    It's not even close to Shanghai.
    - phlux 16y ago
      'Shanghai' was likely stated to make it more easily place-able in the mind of the reader.
      - chrischen 16y ago
        They might as well have said 'China.'
      - barkingcat 16y ago
        this is totally WRONG - it's 1000km away. It's like saying "Microsoft is headquartered in San Francisco" to make Seattle easily place-able in the mind of the reader.
        phlux 16y ago
        I get that, I am saying they did it on purpose regardless.
        barkingcat 16y ago
dailo10 16y ago
I like how they worked straight through the night. In fact, they work around the clock on many infrastructure projects, including roads. It shows that they want to get things done fast. I wish they would do that in America more often. Wouldn't things get built faster and employ more people if they worked around the clock?
- dlokshin 16y ago
  That's really the case in all of South-East Asia. I lived in Singapore for two years where you'd see a full crew on all major construction projects throughout the night. The only time that was really "off" was Sunday night, and even then there were skeleton crews working on this and that. Same was true most everywhere I traveled: Malaysia, Indo, HK, etc.
- ximeng 16y ago
  Click through to YouTube for the explanation in the notes - they don't work through the night: "to explain the video in detail: 48 hours of construction time is the accrued time of construction. workers rest after 10pm everyday. As you may see on the left corner the clicker registers 46 hours as time to finish the main structural components, and another 90 hours to finish the building enclosure. For a building of this size a conventional approach would take anywhere from 3 months to anything goes." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps0DSihggio&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps0DSihggio&feature=playe...
  - bmm6o 16y ago
    When I was in Shanghai, there was construction work near my hotel in Pudong that seemed to go all night. It was maybe fewer workers than during the day, but you could see that there was welding going on any time you cared to look.
- c1sc0 16y ago
  I miss that in Europe too. I guess unions & high labor cost are to blame. At least in the US you can go shopping on sunday while in most of Western Europe everything is closed. When I come back from Asia I'm always amazed at what a lazy bunch of bums we have become.
csytan 16y ago
The build process reminded me of Ikea furniture, where many components are pre-fabricated offsite. Can anyone comment on if this is the norm for large buildings?
- yardie 16y ago
  It is now. A lot of the buildings going up in Dubai were assembled elsewhere and shipped in. I was watching Discovery Channel and they had the elevator shaft, bathrooms, and staircase in prebuilt modules. then they just stacked them up like Legos.
pontifier 16y ago
Forget robot soccer teams striving toward a goal of beating humans... I want to see robot construction crews that can beat that autonomously.
yatsyk 16y ago
Like a hackatron but for construction.
oozcitak 16y ago
This should have took considerable time for designing and manufacturing the modular parts taking into account not only the final state of the building but also hundreds of construction stages. The parts should have been manufactured and factory assembled with extreme detailing and with very low tolerances so that the final on-site assembly required as little work as possible. Also, the logistics should have been planned with excruciating detail and with more workers and site equipment than normally required. I think the total time from design to construction took many months or even more than a year and it cost more than conventional construction. Not that I mean to undermine the effort; this is a marvelous feat of engineering and logistics.

88 points by lotusleaf1987 16y ago

hippich 16y ago

Well. It's not built. Ark Hotel Shell built in 6 days. But still - WOW!

willheim 16y ago
Actually, more like "shell assembled in 6 days". To build it they needed to first prepare the foundation which can take several weeks prior just to get it solid and firm enough to support such a structure. While that is happening they need to be crafting the panels and components in a factory. Then they can bring it to the site and start assembling. With enough labour on site it can be done. Pre-fab is far more advanced in Asia than here and in places like Japan a house can be assembled and ready to move in within 3 days (fully finished). Toyota builds AWESOME steel frame homes that are earthquake resistant and insulated for sound and energy efficiency. Still, the land has to be prepped first and that takes the most time (no good to have an earthquake proof structure on a poor/soft/shifting foundation). Now... what we need to see is what that hotel looks like in 5/10/15 years (doubtful it was built for a lifespan beyond 25 years as most prefabs are built with short life expectancy and planned replacement).

smackfu 16y ago

Was there some reason to build it in 6 days with a half dozen cranes and working all night? Was it to show off for the Shanghai Expo?

robryan 16y ago
Maybe thats the most efficient amount without getting in each others way, the faster they complete this structure the faster they can move to the next. I'd assume over there they don't have many problems staffing a 24/7 worksite.
ximeng 16y ago
They didn't work all night. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1895987 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1895987 According to their website they're an air-conditioning company, based in Changsha, providing products to 70 different countries: http://www.broad.com:8089/english http://www.broad.com:8089/english http://www.broad.com http://www.broad.com (Chinese) Not entirely sure why they've got into building, but they emphasise the sustainability of their construction technique. The owner likes to show off going by his private jet, the fact he built a palace in the style of Versailles, and the 130 foot pyramid on the company campus, picture in the impressive article below. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/03/mr-zhang-builds-his-dream-town/5616/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/03/mr-zhang... Chinese version: http://www.broad.com:8089/news/read.asp?id=226 http://www.broad.com:8089/news/read.asp?id=226 More details on the building in the video at http://www.broad.com:8089/english/down/en_kj.pdf http://www.broad.com:8089/english/down/en_kj.pdf

jhancock 16y ago

Forget about the time to complete. The real advancement here is the use of insulation!!! Most Shanghai structures are poured concrete with zero insulation. Cool video.

narrator 16y ago

I read a couple of specialized news blogs written mostly by people out of Hong Kong about things going on in China. It's pretty amazing story involving 1/6th of humanity. Here's some good blogs if you want to follow along: http://www.zonaeuropa.com/weblog.htm http://www.zonaeuropa.com/weblog.htm http://www.chinahush.com/ http://www.chinahush.com/ http://www.danwei.org/ http://www.danwei.org/ There are many others. A good movie to watch is "Manufactured Landscapes" if you want to see the dark side of all this. Also, "Dwelling Narrowness" is a good mainland Chinese drama. Some versions on the Internet are available with fan contributed English subtitles. It does a pretty good job IMHO of talking about a lot of the apolitical transformations that are going on in Chinese society.

lotusleaf1987 16y ago
I agree that Manufacture Landscapes is an incredibly fascinating documentary, I recommend it to anyone interested in seeing where their consumer goods come from and inevitably end up. And thanks for the links! I'm currently checking them out.
tlack 16y ago
It's quite a coincidence that you both mention Manufactured Landscapes and I happen to be currently watching it on Sundance. I'm a fan of Burtynsky but had never heard of the movie before. Synchronicity.
- alexqgb 16y ago
  One more vote for Manufactured Landscapes. The forever shot in the iron factory is a major revelation.

yread 16y ago

That doesn't look like Shanghai

mchouza 16y ago
A commenter says it's at Changsha: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Changsha&sll=28.22818,112.033081&sspn=1.045401,1.783905&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Changsha,+Hunan,+China&ll=28.22818,112.939453&spn=1.045401,1.783905&z=10 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&#38...
- chrischen 16y ago
  It's not even close to Shanghai.
  - phlux 16y ago
    'Shanghai' was likely stated to make it more easily place-able in the mind of the reader.
    - chrischen 16y ago
      They might as well have said 'China.'
    - barkingcat 16y ago
      this is totally WRONG - it's 1000km away. It's like saying "Microsoft is headquartered in San Francisco" to make Seattle easily place-able in the mind of the reader.
      - phlux 16y ago
        I get that, I am saying they did it on purpose regardless.
        barkingcat 16y ago

dailo10 16y ago

I like how they worked straight through the night. In fact, they work around the clock on many infrastructure projects, including roads. It shows that they want to get things done fast. I wish they would do that in America more often. Wouldn't things get built faster and employ more people if they worked around the clock?

dlokshin 16y ago
That's really the case in all of South-East Asia. I lived in Singapore for two years where you'd see a full crew on all major construction projects throughout the night. The only time that was really "off" was Sunday night, and even then there were skeleton crews working on this and that. Same was true most everywhere I traveled: Malaysia, Indo, HK, etc.
ximeng 16y ago
Click through to YouTube for the explanation in the notes - they don't work through the night: "to explain the video in detail: 48 hours of construction time is the accrued time of construction. workers rest after 10pm everyday. As you may see on the left corner the clicker registers 46 hours as time to finish the main structural components, and another 90 hours to finish the building enclosure. For a building of this size a conventional approach would take anywhere from 3 months to anything goes." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps0DSihggio&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps0DSihggio&feature=playe...
- bmm6o 16y ago
  When I was in Shanghai, there was construction work near my hotel in Pudong that seemed to go all night. It was maybe fewer workers than during the day, but you could see that there was welding going on any time you cared to look.
c1sc0 16y ago
I miss that in Europe too. I guess unions & high labor cost are to blame. At least in the US you can go shopping on sunday while in most of Western Europe everything is closed. When I come back from Asia I'm always amazed at what a lazy bunch of bums we have become.

csytan 16y ago

The build process reminded me of Ikea furniture, where many components are pre-fabricated offsite. Can anyone comment on if this is the norm for large buildings?

yardie 16y ago
It is now. A lot of the buildings going up in Dubai were assembled elsewhere and shipped in. I was watching Discovery Channel and they had the elevator shaft, bathrooms, and staircase in prebuilt modules. then they just stacked them up like Legos.

pontifier 16y ago

Forget robot soccer teams striving toward a goal of beating humans... I want to see robot construction crews that can beat that autonomously.

yatsyk 16y ago

Like a hackatron but for construction.

oozcitak 16y ago

This should have took considerable time for designing and manufacturing the modular parts taking into account not only the final state of the building but also hundreds of construction stages. The parts should have been manufactured and factory assembled with extreme detailing and with very low tolerances so that the final on-site assembly required as little work as possible. Also, the logistics should have been planned with excruciating detail and with more workers and site equipment than normally required. I think the total time from design to construction took many months or even more than a year and it cost more than conventional construction. Not that I mean to undermine the effort; this is a marvelous feat of engineering and logistics.