Dubai's Burj Khalifa is about to get dethroned as the world's tallest building by early 2013. A Chinese company called BSB that specializes in erecting pre-fabricated buildings will begin construction on the 838-meter tall Sky City in Changsa, China in what will be a record 90 days.
It seems unthinkable that a skyscraper, let alone one that will be the world's tallest (the Burj Khalifa is only 828-meters tall) can be constructed in 90 days, but that isn't stopping Broad Sustainable Building (BSB) from gunning for the record. To compare, the Burj Khalifa took five years to construct.
If the name BSB rings a bell, that's because was the same company behind the construction of the 30-story hotel in 15 days from earlier this year.
Sure, the Sky City will be pre-built in a factory prior to its erection, but to piece it all together in 90 days will still be a technological triumph for humanity.
Although there aren't any official images outside of a few hazy renderings from 2010 (anybody else think the rendering above looks like a taller Empire State Building?), the Sky City building will have 15-centimeter thick exterior walls and use one-fifth of the energy a regular building usually consumes. Sky City will also play home to the J Hotel, the world's tallest hotel that'll have 104 elevators connected to it.
If all goes according to plan, BSB will begin construction of the Sky City building in November 2012 and complete it in January 2013. That'll put the Burj Khalifa as the second tallest building in the world, and the recently completed Tokyo Skytree as the third tallest structure in the world.