China's ultra fast residence and traffic related building methods

 

In recent years China has developed efficient systems to build houses at an unprecedented ultra high speed, not just ordinary houses with one or two stacked levels, but also high rising, multi story sky scraper buildings. Although there are two primary types of ultra fast construction offered in this article, outside of them there are other Chinese methods of building residences, office facilities, hotels, theatres, stadiums and other types of architecture like bridges, tunnels, train stations and airports etc. that the Chinese build in far less time than anywhere else in the world. I feature a number of such projects on this page, quite randomly here, just to give a glimpse of Chinese speed architecture. The two most remarkable speed construction methods that the Chinese apply are distinguished systems to build at a high velocity:

1. Modules are built in a factory and assembled in a different location
2. Houses are built by 3D printing.

The Chinese government has limited the buildings' height because of safety precautions. The buildings all are equipped with electrical- and water supply, plumbing provisions, TV- and Internet connections. All that the new tenants or buyers have to do, is furnish their residences. Building at such a high pace significantly lowers the rent and purchase prices, while occupants do not have to register in excruciating lengthy waiting lists, in which they before their houses are delivered. In all aspects, the types of construction have many advantages over traditional ways of building.

Incredible Chinese speed build architecture

In Changsha, the capital of the Hunan province, a 57 story, completely equipped building was constructed in just 19 days by using the modular building system in which 3 completed stories were added every day. Apart from this incredibly fast construction, this system also significantly reduces environmental pollution, because close to no polluting cement is used in the process in the building location. Before starting the building process, Broad Sustainable Building spent about four and a half months manufacturing the modules, within its factory, that are the 2,736 modules that would be fitted on site. And although, it was not a building erected from scratch in less than a few days or weeks, but rather a quick assembly of ready-made pieces that took months to produce. In spite of that, this construction method is much faster and less costly than the traditional way of building, that is among the lengthiest construction processes, while being an environmentally unfriendly method, while the modularly building system has safety precautions built in, that have the possibility to rapidly improve on what was learned on the foundation of previous building experiences. That means that every new project can be better than the previously built ones by incorporating more efficient safety measures, like earthquake and severe storm resistance. But building, also in the Hunan province, can even be achieved in a still shorter time. The Chinese company built a 10 story appartement facility in just 28 hours and 45 minutes..... Compare that to the very slow and polluting building practices, that have a low pace of improving itself (if at all), that are being practiced in the commercially operating west.

Fang Yuanhui Dolphin Plaza

After the devastating Sichuan earthquake in 2008, the Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yue, owner of an airconditioning manufacturing company, created the modular construction method from prefabricated modules, that are stacked, resembling complicated Lego blocks, to build entire residential facilities. His company, the Broad Sustainable Building (BSB), constructed the above mentioned residences in absolute record time with a system that is capable of improving itself, basically without end. In potential, it is the solution to gradually resolve the widespread housing shortage, provided that corrupt political systems do not stubbornly persist in continuing their useless, ineffective way of governing, ignoring urgent public demand and persisting in the environmental polluting construction methods. While western corporations tend to stick to what was developed decades or even loger ago, to save costs, the Chinese are continuously busy improving themselves, housing 20,000 people at an average of 250 dollars per month rent per unit, while the project, contains shops, schools, a subway entrance and swimming pools. This basically is a difficult to ignore harbinger of losing the west's once gained dominance on the global stage for good, since they will only improve if the costs are low or non existing, leaving many people that are looking for proper housing to reside for decades on long, viscous waiting lists, thereby risking to become too old to comply with conditions to meet the standards for proper housing, because their children have left the house, as is occurring too often.

The world's largest residential building in Hangzhou, housing
20,000 people with an average rent of 250 dollar per month

The property of modular construction allows to quickly build residences that are shaped unlike traditional ways of building. Many types of construction (within certain limits of course) can basically be prepared in the plants'design bureaus, without the usual hassle that in traditional ways of building is unavoidable. It saves time and results in improvements. For example, when curved building (when viewed from above) or buildings with an overhang above roads, parks or waterways are the most efficient and fastest way of construction, such methods can be prepared in the factory before the construction of modules takes off. In other words, the modular way of building is more flexible at less costs than traditional ways of construction. Because modular building can be tailored to distinguished situations or demands with less effort and costs than adjusting building shapes in the traditional way of construction.

A brief, but precise oversight why China performs basically anything with greater speed than the west, which is explained in this video. Nine out of the ten most high leaders in China are engineers that understand projects, while western leaders need consultancies to advice them and lawyers to tailor every aspect pf processes to gain licenses and prevent juridical obstructions. In the US the majority of political leaders are lawyers, in the UK they are lawyers and economists that have no engineering background, which requires them to consult specialists to explain project details and financial budgets to them. In addition China builds supply plants close to the production facilities or in house of those facilities, which means they do not have to wait weeks for advice and parts to arrive. The Chinese do not work harder than westerners - their organisational structure simply is more effective, which results in effective logistics and keeps costs lower. The supply of specialised machinery is centrally directed and structured to furnish all necessary equipment on time for every project. Chinese universities deliver 750,000 engineers every year and focus their classes on how recent projects are carried out. This means that graduates have all the necessary knowledge when they end up in planning and production positions. China leads the world in 37 out of 44 of the world's most critical technical developments, the US only leads in 7 of them in 2026; in a few years China's advantage will tilt more in a direction that increasingly favours their efforts, because their education is directly influenced by information gained from recent projects, that are taught to students. So, lawyers are undeniably outperformed by engineers and an educational system that makes a great effort to remain up to date and applying the acquired knowledge to real world projects in as little time as possible.

China built 20,000 houses in 72 hours in South-Africa

And then there are housing construction projects that are built with 3D printing. In 2024 China built 20,000 houses in South-Africa in just 72 hours. This reveals how fast can be built by using 3D printing techniques to construct residences. It almost sounds incredible but the webpage mentioned above explains how the Chinese accomplished this astonishing result. African workers can now replace their improvised, instable Shanty town homes with well constructed houses close to immediately. The enormous potential of this innovative construction method has been proven to be more than efficient with the extremely rapid completion of this project. The article on this page to which the link leads, is just a tiny collection of examples indicating what the Chinese approach towards the handling of construction projects already is today. And the Chinese have managed to astound the world in the past decade with accomplishing technically revolutionary and innovative construction methods, to which there still is no end. Besides spectacular building projects, China has leapt ahead of the rest of the world in other kinds of projects as well -  the big Chinese cities are all monitored and regulated by advanced AI systems, that include power distribution and traffic regulation automatically. Also the production and innovation of projects advance at an incredible pace, such as solar- and wind energy creation, battery development, high paced computer electronics progress, AI- and quantum computer development, EV production, swiftly advancing thorium based nuclear plant energy production experiments, robotised lunar construction building to explore and mine the moon, reducing extremely difficult desert space, enormous new water ways to supply the dry northern part of China, medical innovations, complex infrastructure speed building trajectories, faster than jet airplanes 1000 kilometres per hour maglev trains and stunning improvements in many more industrial fields. I fear the near future will offer an abundance of projects, that will be worth presenting - if so, I may write articles about them in this blog.