At first 15 floors in 6 days, then 30 floors in 15 days, now 57 floors in 19 days... Chinese company "Broad Sustainable Building" again hits a record. BSB Architect Xian Min Zhang has released a time-lapse video of the construction of the company's latest building: a 57-floor, 80 thousand square meters skyscraper, fully built with energy-efficient, factory-produced, Lego-like blocks. He claims BSB is now building its prefabricated skyscrapers at a record three floors per day. The new prefabricated tower, which named "J57", has 19 atriums of 10 meters' height each, 800 apartments and office space for 4,000 people. The use of company's modular construction technique, which won a CTBUH Innovation Award in 2013, reduced the use of concrete by 15,000 trucks, which has nearly eliminated all the dust that would normally be released during conventional construction, an important advantage in pollution-ridden China. Besides this, the air inside the building is 99.9 percent pure, thanks to the tight construction and built-in air conditioning system. The J57 building has quadruple-pane glass and is so energy efficient that it will save more than 10,000 metric tons of CO2 emission compared to a conventionally constructed building of the same size and use. The first attempt to build such buildings company made in 2010, when built its first prefabricated tower. The 15-story Ark Hotel was built in record 6 days . After two years, company built 30-story prefabricated hotel just in 15 days. Then in 2013 the founder of parent company Broad Group Chairman Zhang Yue announced about its ambitious project. The company planned to build world's tallest tower - 838 meter high "Sky City". According to the company, construction of this tower began on June 20, 2013 and would be completed by April 2014. But the project has been halted, apparently for political reasons. This Mini Sky city, while proving that Zhang's techniques work-and quite impressively so-was itself halted at 20 stories and then cut in height from 97 stories to 57; the company states that this was due to its location near an airport.

When American engineer William Le Baron Jenney designed the world's first skyscraper in Chicago in 1884, no one believed in his unconventional technologies. But today swapping cement and steel for timber is the vision of a number of environmentally-minded architects who are planning high-rise building across the world. Architecture firm "Rudiger Lainer and Partner" has unveiled plans to build the world's tallest wooden skyscraper in the Seestadt Aspern area of Vienna. The 84 meters, 24 stories "HoHo" tower will house a hotel, apartments, a restaurant, a wellness center and offices. 76 percent of the structure will be constructed from wood, which will save a phenomenal 2,800 tons of CO2 emissions over similar structures built out of steel and concrete. Speaking to the Guardian, project developer Caroline Palfy, of "Kerbler " explained "I think it is important everyone now... thinks in different ways. We have wood, which is a perfect construction material for building. It was used many centuries and it was perfect then and is perfect now." Not only is the material appropriate for construction of such a building, it is radically more environmentally friendly than concrete. According to research from Columbia University, the manufacturing of cement-a key ingredient in concrete-accounts for a whopping five percent of all global CO2 emissions. Trees, on the other hand, absorb CO2 as they grow-so, if wood is sustainably sourced it can serve as an eco-friendly alternative building material. Currently world's highest timber frame apartment building "Forte" at 32 meters completed in 2012 is situated in Melbourne. Another modern wooden building is in London. Called the "Stadthaus", Murray Grove, it's a nine-story residential building that stands at just less than 30 meters. Even the lift shafts and stairwells are made from wood. In previous years Norway and Canada also announced about plans to build wooden skyscrapers. In 2012 Architect Michael Green, one of three principals at "McFarlane Green Biggar Architecture + Design", announced about plans for a 30-story wooden skyscraper in Vancouver. Two years later "Bergen ? Omegn Building Society" started works on the 14 story wooden structure "Treet" or "The tree", which would rise to 49 meters.

According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) annual report about skyscrapers construction all over the world, 2014 was a record year. The CTBUH has determined that 97 buildings of 200 meters' height or greater were completed around the world in 2014. Nearly half of all high-rise buildings were being built in China. The 11 of these supertalls were 300 meters or higher. The 97 buildings completed in 2014 beat every previous year on record, including the previous record high of 81 completions in 2011. This was the "tallest year ever" by another measure: The sum of heights of all 200-meter-plus buildings completed across the globe in 2014 was 23,333 meters - setting another all-time record and breaking 2011's previous record of 19,852 meters. The number of 200-meter-plus buildings in existence has hit 935, a 352% increase from 2000, when only 266 existed. China completed the most 200-meter-plus buildings (58). This represents 60% of the global 2014 total. According to CTBUH their annual number of skyscrapers will increase related to economic development of China. The Philippines took second place with five completions, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar share position three with four completions, and the United States, Japan, Indonesia and Canada tie for fourth, with three completions each. At 541 meters, One World Trade Center was the tallest building to complete in 2014 and is now the world's third-tallest building. From 97 skyscrapers, built in 2014, 47 are designed for offices. Another 26 are classified as multi-functional center with a hotel, commercial and residential areas. If anything, 2015 promises to be more active than 2014 and indeed, any year previous. We currently project the completion of between 105 and 130 buildings of 200 meters' height or greater, eight to 15 of which will be supertalls, and one of which will be a megatall - Shanghai Tower (632 meters). Founded in 1969, the Council's mission is to disseminate multidisciplinary information on tall buildings and sustainable urban environments, to maximize the international interaction of professionals involved in creating the built environment, and to make the latest knowledge available to professionals in a useful form. Now CTBUH headquarters located in Chicago.