
Video: 15 story Ark Hotel built in 6 days in Shanghai - lotusleaf1987
http://www.archdaily.com/88245/video-ark-hotel/
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narrator
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.chinahush.com/>

<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.

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tlack
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
One more vote for Manufactured Landscapes. The forever shot in the iron
factory is a major revelation.

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jhancock
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.

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oozcitak
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.

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smackfu
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?

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ximeng
They didn't work all night.

<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> (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...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/03/mr-zhang-builds-
his-dream-town/5616/)

Chinese version:

<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>

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dailo10
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?

~~~
c1sc0
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.

~~~
jasonkester
Neither of the things you mention are caused by labor costs.

European stores are closed on Sundays because the law requires them to be.
It's a measure to allow mom & pop stores to compete against the WalMarts of
the world while maintaining quality of life.

Construction happens during the day because people in western countries value
silence, and therefore the laws are written to prevent noisy things happening
during the hours that normal people are asleep. Road construction at night
seems like a great idea, until it happens on the road in front of your house.

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csytan
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?

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yardie
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.

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

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yread
That doesn't look like Shanghai

~~~
mchouza
A commenter says it's at Changsha:

[http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&...](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)

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chrischen
It's not even close to Shanghai.

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phlux
'Shanghai' was likely stated to make it more easily place-able in the mind of
the reader.

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barkingcat
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
I get that, I am saying they did it on purpose regardless.

~~~
barkingcat
no my point is that the author most likely got the wrong information than
having done it on purpose. I can understand a person not being fluent in a
foreign language, but I can't understand a person misrepresenting a distance
of 1000km on purpose.

Most likely it was just bad editing/bad writing - and it's unconscionable to
explain it away as "on purpose".

And by the way, the original article now has the corrected location: Changsha

It wasn't on purpose - just a mistake.

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hippich
Well. It's not built. Ark Hotel Shell built in 6 days.

But still - WOW!

~~~
willheim
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).

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yatsyk
Like a hackatron but for construction.

