World's Tallest Skyscraper Build Halted

Set to become the world's tallest building, China's Sky City One skyscraper has stopped being built, according to reports published in late July 2013.

Work on the super-skyscraper got underway only one week ago but it seems, already, the project has stalled. The Xiaoxiang Morning Post writes that the cessation is all down to construction approval not having been granted. However, according to comments made to news agency AFP, that is not the case.

Most sources appear to state that the Sky City One build timeframe is somewhere between three and four months. That very short window has been a source of health and safety concerns and, apparently, a factor in previous construction delays, since the Sky City One skyscraper was meant to have been started in late 2012. 'The speed is horrifying, how can that be possible?', one Weibo (the Chinese Twitter equivalent) user recently wrote.

Sky City Construction

The 90-120 day Sky City construction timeframe is only possible thanks to Broad Sustainable Building's prefabricated parts approach, use of which has already produced 20 other Chinese skyscrapers.

"Broad is still currently in the beginning stages of arranging the construction project", a source involved in the project explained in comments quoted today by CNN. "So far, they've undergone the process to obtain 136 mu [22 acres] of land, but that's it. They're still in the very basic beginning stages. We've been giving a lot of attention to this case, and everything they've done has been according to law."

World's Tallest Skyscraper

Once (and now, if) completed, Sky City One - with 200 storeys - will stand 2,749 feet (838 metres) tall. In comparison, the Burj Khalifa - currently the world's tallest skyscraper - measures 2,717 feet (828 metres) in height and is presently the only building anywhere that tops out above the 2,000 foot line.

Right now, China is home to the world's fifth-tallest building. This, the Shanghai World Financial Center, is 1,614 feet (492 metres) high while China has another entry in the world's top-ten: the 1,476 foot-high Zifeng Tower.

According to a 2011 report, China is ultimately set to have four times more skyscrapers than the entire United States.

Image copyright Richard Smith - Courtesy Wikimedia Commons