Is This Really a Good Idea?

[Texas Contrarian]

(My apologies for breaking up the routine by posting a non-political thread.)

Check out this 2-minute time-collapse video of a Chinese hotel built in six days:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E76uJi744Do

The developers claim that it's soundproof, thermal-insulated, and capable of withstanding a magnitude 9.0 earthquake.

A couple of questions:

For you engineering types, is it really possible to build a fairly large building that quickly without seriously compromising quality?

Have the Chinese been building too much stuff?

(I think the answer to the second question is clearly yes.)

[CuteOldGuy]

It's amazing what you can accomplish without a union.

[JD Barleycorn]

I don't see anything that indicates that they built on uncured concrete. It looked like the pad/foundation/basement was already there when they started. That is the limiting factor other than incompetence. I have seen a 3 bedroom house built in less than 6 hours at an annual homebuilding competition. The Kaiser shipyard in World War II was able to build a Liberty ship in eight days with modular construction techniques.

[Jackie S]

That is a totally pre-fabricated structure. The vast majority of the time was spent insuring every piece of steel, (or other material), was cut, formed, and drilled exactly to fit the puzzle.

All you need is enough man power and machinery to stack it all together as quicly as possible.

They built Liberty Ships in the same manner. It was bragged that one Shipyard built in in about a week. But that did not take into account all of the pre-fabricated pieces that arrived from other locations, ready to be assembled in a timely manner.

As long as you are not dealing with a structural part that has to have a specific curing time, such as the foundation, all you are limited to is how many bodies and how much equipment you are willing to expend in the effort as to how fast something can be built.

What is impressive is the planning and logistics that went into this "stunt". Making sure the correct piece went in, at the exact moment it was supposed to.

[Fast Gunn]

Thanks for posting that video, Captain.

It is impressive what can be done when you set your mind to it and work day and night as this Chinese crew did, but there is an unseen aspect that troubles me.

There was certainly a lot of preparation work done prior to construction to hit such an aggressive schedule.

. . . Personally, I have never seen a project of this magnitude constructed in such a short span of time and I would be quite leery of the overall quality of design, construction and inspection of this building.