FRIEZE NEW YORK 2013
INTERNATIONAL HOME + HOUSEWARES SHOW 2013
TOKYO DESIGN WEEK 2012
BEIJING DESIGN WEEK 2012
While the last entry saw me complaining about an example of shoddy Chinese manufacturing, now we'll look at an example of Chinese manufacturing might. In this six-minute video currently making the blog rounds, we see an astonishing feat of design, engineering and execution: The 30-story T30 Hotel constructed in Hunan Province, taking just 15 days to erect.
Constructed by China's Broad Sustainable Building, a pioneer in prefabricated buildings, the hotel is made from neatly prefabricated parts. (Some ninety percent of the building's components were pre-assembled.) And it's no ordinary building, but boasts some seriously impressive credentials: It will reportedly withstand a 9.0-magnitude earthquake; it has quadruple-glazed windows and other green touches resulting in five times the energy efficiency of an ordinary building; the building's air purification system results in air that is 20 times cleaner than it is outside; and the entire structure was erected while yielding construction waste of just 1%.
With stats and documentation like this, it's no surprise that the video has yielded 4 million hits and counting.
The fact that China can produce structures like this at that speed, but cannot or will not make a simple sewing machine handwheel correctly, reminds me of the old American complaint from the '70s that people would utter after minor American product failures: "They can put a man on the moon, but they can't make [TV knobs that don't break / a toilet where you don't have to jiggle the handle / a car that doesn't need to go into the shop every month / etc.]"
What we'll look at in the next entry is an even more impressive—and chilling, to competitors—facet of Chinese manufacturing that will propel them into the future.
Chinese Manufacturing:
» Part 1: Getting It Wrong
» Part 2: Getting It Right
Comments
How long did it take to make all those neatly prefabricated parts?
the thing you may not have noticed is the background: it' s empty . For a build the background is the context anf this building have no context , it s a cathedral in a desert .
Pre-fab seems to be the smart way to go. What I am looking for is prefab renovation/additions to existing homes. There are an awful lot of houses based on similar footprints/dimensions that could easily be expanded with a shop-built addition. The basic box frame would be fairly standard, allowing the homeowner to layout the internal divisions for rooms, choose a roofline, and go. All the wiring and plumbing could be prepared for tying into the existing structure. It would be amazing to contract something like this and have it installed over a few days, rather than weeks to months it takes now. It could even arrive painted and carpeted, ready to live in.
And consider the better working conditions and perhaps even quality of the work if your carpenters, etc. are working in a climate controlled environment. No weather-related slowdowns (except maybe at the final install stage).
Considering the profligacy of corruption and countless examples like your first post what makes you think this structure fulfills it's parameters and isn't full of catastrophic errors?
I'm not convinced.
Tech specs are good and all, but what is the interior design like, what was the environmental impact of making all the building's components, and how well were the workers (both in manufacturing and construction) treated?
Color me skeptical. This really doesn't paint a different picture that the one we already have.
More of this should be done in the West.
What would you think of buying an automobile that had to be made by a bunch of workers coming to your home and assembling it on your driveway? Not very logical, wot?
We built a cottage by premanufacturing 4x8 foot sections in a jig on our basement floor, each complete with whatever - door, window, wiring ... the works. Then we took the sections two at a time 173 miles to our lake on the roof of our car and over a period of two summer months we built the cottage shell complete except for the roof by simply standing the sections in the appropriate places and nailing them down. This could be done infinitely better on an industrial scale, with the right trucks, handling equipment, etc. backed up in a factory making 20 cottages a day - or Lego-type rooms for a house, whatever.
In fact I'd be surprised if that isn't being done right now by firms specializing in prefabbing. Not being anywhere near that biz, I wouldn't know. Does any reader of this know... ?
F.
Frank have a look at the 'Huf Haus' industry in Germany, it's huge - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huf_Haus
cheers, w