The prefab Hotel in China's south-central Hunan province, 170 square meters hotel standing 30 stories, was erected in an incredible 360 hours or in 15 days, reported Constructiondigital. The hotel built Chinese sustainable-building firm Broad Group and the building is designed to withstand up a 9.0 earthquake - and even boasts energy-efficient building techniques. The construction firm in charge of the project was able to manage such a rapid timeline because of a smart prefab design that allowed much of the building to be manufactured off-site, and then assembled relatively rapidly once the foundations had been set. As our website reported last year the developer, Broad Group, came under the global spotlight last year when it built a 15-storey Ark Hotel in China in just 6 days. And their latest project, which is located in the south-central Chinese city of Changsha is no less impressive. The "flat pack" skyscraper was 90 percent pre-constructed in factories and then put together onsite. It uses one-sixth the materials of a comparable facility and is also an extremely energy-efficient building, combining thermal insulation, triple pane windows, external solar shading, fresh air heat recovery, and LED lighting. Having perfected their novel approach to construction the company now aims to build another 150 30-storey apartment buildings, hotels and offices in the same manner. It is hoped that the ability to build property so quickly will revolutionize areas where property is in short supply. Let's be clear what is prefab design and prefabricated building. It is a type of building or design that consists of several factory-built components or units that are assembled on-site to complete the unit. Architects are incorporating modern designs into the prefabricated houses of today. There has also been an increase in the use of "green" materials in the construction of these prefab houses. Consumers can easily select between different environmentally friendly finishes and wall systems. Since these homes are built in parts, it is easy for a home owner to add additional rooms or even solar panels to the roofs. Many prefab houses can be customized to the client's specific location and climate, making prefab homes much more flexible and modern than before. Possibly the first advertised prefab house was the Manning Portable Cottage. A London carpenter, H. Manning, constructed a house that was built in components, then shipped and assembled by British emigrants. This was published at the time (advertisement, South Australian Record, 1837) and a few still stand in Australia.

As reported by english.chosen.com, this week construction began on the Yongsan Landmark Tower, which is expected to be the most expensive building in the world once it is completed, standing 100 stories tall and rising half a kilometer into the sky. The tower is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016. Scheduled to be built in Seoul, inside the international business district in Yongsan, the tower will not quite measure up to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (162 stories, 828 meters) or the Lotte Super Tower being built in Jamsil (123 stories, 555 meter), but it will be the most expensive building per square unit. At present, each 1 square meter costs around US$ 3,150. The total construction cost is US$ 1.2 billion and the entire price tag for the building, including the land, stands at more than US$ 3.4 billion. It is more expensive than the Burj Khalifa, which cost around US$ 3,000 million per 1 square meter and costs 40 percent more than the Samsung Group headquarters in Seocho-dong, which cost US$ 2,400 per 1 square meter. Design alterations and the use of more high-tech materials could bump the price tag up further. The skyscraper will be packed with cutting-edge equipment and facilities. The structure was designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano, who created the Pompidou Center in Paris and London Bridge Tower. Samsung Corporation, which also served as the main contractor on the Burj Khalifa and Taipei 101 (101 stories, 508 meters), the latter in Taiwan, will build the new architectural landmark in Yongsan. It will house the offices of global businesses and will offer a wide range of high-tech functions. First of all, the skyscraper will be equipped with the fastest elevators in the world that travel at 800 meters per minute, more than six times faster than the lifts installed in high-rise condominiums in Korea (120 m/min). In order to withstand the staggering weight of 100 stories of steel and concrete, ultra-high intensity concrete will be used to build the skyscraper, capable of supporting up to 800 kg per square cm.

Several new skyscrapers will appear in the Warsaw cityscape over the next few years. One of them may become the tallest building in Europe, reported The Warsaw Voice. A company owned by Jan Kulczyk, one of the richest men in Poland, plans to build a more than 282-meter skyscraper in the center of the city, near Zawiszy Square. Originally, the project was scheduled to get under way in 2009, but air traffic safety restrictions stood in the way. However, the regulations changed recently, and today there are no formal obstacles to issuing a permit for a skyscraper to be constructed there. "The Kulczyk Tower" is expected to be 282.4 meters tall, almost 52 meters taller than Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science and nearly 24 meters taller than the "Commerzbank Tower" in Frankfurt, Germany, which is currently the tallest high-rise in Europe. "The Kulczyk Tower" will be almost 81 thousand square meter in area and host a service complex, hotel rooms, apartments and garages. The area where "the Kulczyk Tower" will be built will become the "Warsaw Manhattan" in the future. Many developers are interested in constructing tall buildings in this area. One ongoing project is the "Warsaw Spire" skyscraper, which is being built on Towarowa Street. The office complex will comprise three buildings: a 220-meter tower and two side buildings, each with a height of 55 meters. In all, the project will offer about 100 thousand square meters of office, service and retail space. The developer is the "Ghelamco Poland" company, which also plans to construct a tall building on Zawiszy Square, one rising to 130 meters. It unveiled the idea at a real estate fair in Cannes earlier this year. A few years ago, Spanish developer "Torca" bought a large plot on Towarowa Street, hoping to build 200-meter skyscrapers. The plot currently hosts the "Jupiter" shopping center and several other buildings. Local officials recently permitted the development of two towers there, one with a height of 170 meters and the other rising to130 meters. The area around the "Marriott Hotel" and the "Warszawa Centralna" train station will host another cluster of tall buildings in the future. A 260-meter skyscraper, designed by acclaimed architect Zaha Hadid and called "Lilium", is expected to be built there. However, the project, which has already been approved by the Warsaw authorities, has been put on hold due to the crisis. In the immediate vicinity, on Emilii Plater and Nowogrodzka streets, two 218-meter towers will be built in a project that will be in harmony with the skyscraper designed by Hadid. The "Twarda Tower", being developed by the "Hines" company, will be 160 meters tall. Located in the very heart of Warsaw on Twarda Street, it will hold a hotel on the lower floors and apartments on the upper floors. Nearby, on ONZ traffic circle, a 150-meter "Dipservice" skyscraper will be constructed. "Dipservice" is part of the "Grupa Polski Holding Nieruchomo?ci" real estate corporation. At the beginning of the previous decade, developers worldwide started constructing many tall buildings with luxury apartments. The global fashion for residential towers also reached Poland. Several such projects were started and a number of others were on the drawing board. However, many of these projects were later discontinued due to the crisis. Some of them have been completely abandoned, others have stalled and still others have been redesigned to suit new market needs. After an almost two-year hiatus, construction work has resumed on Warsaw's most luxurious building, the "Z?ota 44" skyscraper in the city center. The tower, being developed by the "Orco Property Group", is expected to open in 2012. The luxurious apartment tower will rise to 192 meters and 54 stories above the ground on Z?ota Street in the very heart of Warsaw. The building was designed by Daniel Libeskind, an internationally acclaimed American architect of Polish extraction. The tower, nicknamed the "Glass Sail" for its light form, and bright, almost transparent facade, will house a total of 251 apartments of various sizes. Located higher than any other apartments in Warsaw, they will be the most luxurious ones in the city, according to the developer. The lower part of the tower will house retail space with general access. The building will offer a swimming pool, a sauna, a spa center, a sun deck, a fitness club with a yoga studio and concierge service. It will also have space for celebrations, complete with house catering services.

As reported by Chinadaily, developers working on a new skyscraper, which once built will be the capital's tallest building, say they will break ground on the project on September 19. CITIC Group (China International Trust and Investment Corporation), which won the rights to the 11.478 square meters land in the Central Business District (CDB) with a bid of US$ 563 million on last December 21, plans to build a 510-meters tall office tower with 104 floors above ground and four basement levels. The final design hasn't been decided yet, as the group is waiting for municipal governmen's approval, but the building will be higher than 500 meters. The new skyscraper is called Zhongguo Zun, which means China Goblet, as the inspiration for the design came from an ancient ritual vessel. Construction will be completed in five to seven years and the completed building will offer 350 thousand square meter of space. The land where the building will stand is in the north of the CBD, which houses many international companies. The capital's tallest building now is Tower 3 of China World Trade Center, which is 330 meters tall and is also in the CBD. The skyscraper is expected to serve as an office building for CITIC Group. The design of the new skyscraper adopts many elements from traditional culture, such as the Kongming (Floating Paper) Lamp. The building will remind people of the ancient Chinese city, representing Beijing's image perfectly.

Kingdom Tower, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's project to erect the world's tallest building in Jeddah, is designed to imitate the contours of a sprouting desert plant. Adrian Smith's task is to make sure it doesn't sway in the wind like one. The American architect has the right resume for the job. He already grappled with effects like horizontal wind divergence and negative pressure high above the Persian Gulf desert when he designed Dubai's "Burj Khalifa", today's highest tower. As explained Adrian Smith during telephone interview to news agency Bloomberg, Kingdom Tower will rise from three separate bases in continuous slopes that end at different heights, helping to balance the building's weight and stabilize it against winds that can reach 190 kilometer per hour at the top. The tower is designed to move about 1 meter side-to-side at 500 meters in the most severe storms that occur once every 50 years or so, he said. The movement will be much less in more typical weather conditions. Designing the world's tallest buildings presents numerous challenges beyond high winds. The observation deck will stick out from the building in an 24 meter-wide disc that was originally designed as a helicopter-landing platform, Smith said. The idea was abandoned after several pilots judged that landing there would be too risky. Water must be pumped up the 163-floor Kingdom Tower in stages, using holding tanks at various levels, to avoid too much pressure building up in the pipes and causing them to burst, Smith said. Evacuation also requires special planning. The Jeddah tower will have emergency refuge rooms every 20 floors, where people can stop to get water and protection as well as emergency instructions while descending to the ground. Smith said he's looking at ways to use the elevators in emergencies rather than following the common practice of banning their use. Smith's design includes a system that collects moisture out of the air and from mechanical systems within the tower, producing enough fresh water each year to fill 14 Olympic-size pools. Summer temperatures in Jeddah, the gateway to Islam's holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, can soar to 40 degrees Celsius with 80 percent humidity. The Kingdom Tower's exterior walls will be made of glass with insulation behind it to help the structure control the heat, Smith said. "We use glass because it's easy to maintain and has longevity," Smith said. "It also reflects the sky and helps the tower feel lighter and more elegant." Apartment prices in Kingdom Tower will probably be comparable to luxury homes in Dubai and a two-bedroom apartment will probably sell for around US$ 800 thousand.