Sky City: World’s Tallest Tower to Break Ground in June

As soon as 2014, the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/Burj-Khalifa/" target="_blank">Burj Khalifa</a> may no longer be the tallest building in the world. <a href="http://inhabitat.com/worlds-tallest-skyscraper-to-be-built-in-210-days-instead-of-90-as-originally-planned/" target="_blank">Sky City</a>, a planned 220-story prefab tower in Changsha, China, will soon claim that title. According to <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/modular-design/one-building-one-city-worlds-tallest-prefab-breaking-ground-june.html" target="_blank">Lloyd Alter at Treehugger</a>, <a href="http://www.broad.com:8089/english/product/bsb/bsb.asp" target="_blank">Broad Sustainable Building</a>, the company behind the tower, will begin construction on the prefab behemoth this June. The energy-efficient skyscraper will literally house an entire city using just 10 percent of the site area, and it could serve as a model for sustainable urban development of the future.

<a href="http://inhabitat.com/sky-city-chinas-bsb-to-break-ground-on-worlds-tallest-skyscraper-in-november/" target="_blank">Sky City</a> will be prefabricated off site in 3 months time and then assembled in just a short 7 months.

Reaching up 838 meters (2,749 ft), the tower will hold 220 floors featuring residential, office space, organic farms, recreation spaces, schools, a hospital retail and much more.

The tower will house 4,450 families in apartments ranging from 645 sq ft to 5,000 sq ft with 92 elevators at your disposal to reach them.

Literally, Sky City will be a vertical city that can accommodate 100,000 people and will offer everything that is needed - water, electricity, sewage (<a href="http://inhabitat.com/the-incredible-story-of-how-the-burj-khalifas-poop-is-trucked-out-of-town/" target="_blank">unlike the Burj Khalifa</a>), open space, schools, health care and more.

Using just a portion of their site, Sky City will have the most <a href="http://inhabitat.com/vertigo-inducing-photos-of-hong-kong-housing-show-just-how-dense-it-is/" target="_blank">extreme urban density</a> we've ever seen. But the difference between Sky City and say, Hong Kong, is that the tower is surrounded by parks, meaning that every resident has access to open space.

The prefabricated tower will include many energy efficient strategies like 8-inch thick insulated walls, triple glazing, exterior shading that cuts down on cooling by 30%, and a co-generation plant using waste heat from power generation for heating and cooling.

Transportation is provided by low-energy elevators and for those who want to walk (or get exercise) there is a six mile long ramp running from the first to the 170th floor.

According to <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/modular-design/one-building-one-city-worlds-tallest-prefab-breaking-ground-june.html" target="_blank">Treehugger</a>, construction is set to begin this June and is expected to be complete within 7 months (210 days).

The rapid pace of construction and the overall design for such a massive skyscraper could be a cause of concern, but if <a href="http://www.broad.com:8089/english/product/bsb/bsb.asp" target="_blank">Broad Sustainable Building</a> pulls it off, it may show the world how sustainable density can be achieved on a massive scale. The company assures that the building will be able to withstand a Magnitude 9 earthquake and will have a 3 hour fire resistance rating.