It might look like any of China's countless building sites, but in little over a week, a site in China's central Hunan province has become a completed, three-story, low-carbon canteen building that would take at least a year to build using traditional construction methods.<br/> <br />Originally the main structure was slated to be up in 24 hours, but heavy rain, a delivery problem and a national holiday forced construction way over schedule, to nine days.<br/> <br />The company behind it, Broad Sustainable Building (BSB), has made a mark by constructing environmentally-friendly "instant buildings" at lightning speed, using an innovative system of prefabricated modules that slot together like flat-pack furniture.<br/> <br />Towering cranes lowered four-by-15 metre modules onto steel supports, where they slotted in neatly and were fastened tight by an army of workers working in shifts through the night to get it done.<br/> <br />In December, the company erected a 30-storey hotel in only 15 days, but Zhang has much bigger plans: by the end of this year, he wants to build a 220-storey building - potentially the world's tallest -- in just four months, using the same modular system and 2,000 workers.<br/> <br />The "instant buildings" are the vision of Zhang Yue, the billionaire founder and chairman of Broad Group, who made his fortune selling low energy air-conditioning units.
