A system based on prefabricated modules has allowed Zhang Yue to construct skyscrapers in heretofore unimaginably quick times. They might not be beautiful, but they are green and relatively inexpensive. As the buildings grow taller, the developer’s dreams grow wider. From Finn Aberdein at the BBC:

The revolution will be modular, Zhang insists. Mini Sky City was assembled from thousands of factory-made steel modules, slotted together like Meccano.

It’s a method he says is not only fast, but also safe and cheap.

Now he wants to drop the “Mini” and use the same technique to build the world’s tallest skyscraper, Sky City.

While the current record holder, the 828m-high Burj Khalifa in Dubai, took five years to “top out”, Zhang says his proposed 220-storey “vertical city” will take only seven months – four for the foundations, and three for the tower itself.

And it will be 10m taller.

But if that was not enough, Zhang Yue wants nothing less than to reimagine the whole urban environment.

He has a vision of a future where his company makes a third of the world’s buildings – all modular, all steel, and all green.

“The biggest problem we face in the world right now isn’t terrorism or world war. It’s climate change,” he says.•