Blitz Building

Habitat for Humanity might have coined the phrase “Blitz Build” but today this is being taken to a new level. Last week, in India, a 10-story tower was constructed in only 48 hours. Everything was per-constructed and through a masterful orchestration of delivery and movement this building finished on December 1st. “All the components have been manufactured already, doors that can be pre-fitted, water supply components, wiring, sanitation, air conditioning ducts and everything else. These will be shifted in state-of-the-art transporting vehicles to the actual site for installation”, said Harpal Singh, the businessman that underwrote the project.

The new building is located near Chandigarh, a place that is home to many wonderful architectural works by Khan, Le Corbusier and Jeanneret. Will this building be added to the list? It seems very unlikely.

Many projects recently have focused more on the speed of building than the actual design, such as a 16-story hotel that was built in less than 6 days in China. SkyCity is another project that has been mentioned in class that is attempting an unimaginable schedule to build 2750 ft tall building in 9 months and surpass the Burj Khalifa. Call me a skeptic, but something tells me that these buildings put so much weight into the systems to construct them, that they will not remain something to talk about for long. They may be structurally sound (although some are questioning that as well) but they are mundane and repetitive to the point of boredom. In order to construct quickly a level of redundancy has to exist but these buildings are not helping the case for this new “blitz building” movement. As for me, I hope this trend, is just that, only a trend that dies out quickly. I believe that we can use BIM to build more efficiently but in order to be successful more than just the speed of delivery needs to be considered.