Jul. 25 – The seemingly never ending desire for the Chinese to obtain ‘face’ appears to be reaching literally ludicrous heights with the news that Chinese property developer Zhang Yu has announced plans to build a 202 story “Sky City” in Changsha, Hunan Province. Breaking ground earlier this month on the site, Zhang has claimed the skyscraper will be 10 meters taller than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is currently the tallest man made structure in the world.
Not only that, but Zhang claims he can build it – in a city known for its earthquakes – in just nine months. It will be made from prefabricated steel and concrete modules, and when finished will house shopping malls, residencies, schools, a hotel, hospital and a vertical garden designed to supply food to its planned 30,000 residents.
According to Zhang, it will apparently cost US$850 million to build, and this is a man with previous experience. His last project was a prefabricated concrete, 30 story hotel that went up in just two weeks. By comparison, the architects and engineers responsible for the Burj Khalifa look remarkably amateurish – their project took five years to build and cost US$1.5 billion.
We can compare Dubai with Changsha as follows:
Chinese bloggers meanwhile have been casting concerns about the project – not over its viability and whether or not Zhang can actually build it – but in regards to its symbolic value. The United States, Japan and Dubai all built significant skyscrapers just before their respective economic crises. With Zhang just having broken ground this month, we can expect to see whether his sky high ambitions – due for topping off in March next year – will be realized.
Update (July 26, 2013): Construction on the Sky City skyscraper has been halted as the project has not received building permission from the relevant authorities.
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