You probably saw this video of a 30 story building being built in 15 days in China, I posted it previously and it’s been viewed 4M times. It’s worth watching for a minute or two again.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdpf-MQM9vY

I just read the story behind that video in the Wired article High Speed High Rise.  I encourage you to follow that link and read that article if you’re interested in the future of construction. I’ll give you the highlights below.

Zhang Yue founded Broad Sustainable Building and reminds me of a Tiger Mom version of Steve Jobs. I love this Wired excerpt:

To become an employee of Broad, you must recite a life manual penned by Zhang, guidelines that include tips on saving energy, brushing your teeth, and having children. All prospective employees must be able, over a two-day period, to run 7.5 miles. You can eat for free at Broad Town cafeterias unless someone catches you wasting food, at which point you’re not merely fined but publicly shamed.

Sounds like my kind of place. Zhang trained and worked as an artist for years, then went into manufacturing and made a fortune on boilers. Seeing the next big thing, he went into gas powered air conditioning. The AC units work when the power grid doesn’t, as well as being energy efficient and economical. I’ll let Wired take over again:

For two decades, Zhang’s AC business boomed. But a couple of events conspired to change his course. The first was that Zhang became an environmentalist, a gradual awakening that he says began 10 or 12 years ago. The second was the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that hit China’s Sichuan Province in 2008, causing the collapse of poorly constructed buildings and killing some 87,000 people. In the aftermath, Zhang began to fixate on the problem of building design. At first, he says, he tried to convince developers to retrofit existing buildings to make them both more stable and more sustainable. “People paid no attention at all,” he says. So Zhang drafted his own engineers—300 of them, according to Jiang—and started researching how to build cheap, environmentally friendly structures that could also withstand an earthquake.

Frustrated by traditional building methods, Zhang redesigned highrises for factory production. The innovative structural system uses much less steel and concrete, while being much more earthquake resistent. Ductwork and wiring are installed in the factory. Features like quad glazed windows with exterior solar blinds and interior insulating blinds help drive the energy efficiency to the highest levels.

Broad has built 20 of these 20 story buildings without a single construction injury. When you look to construction’s future (and perhaps your own), think hard about pre-fabrication. Enough said, that’s a deal.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSxihhBzCjk