The news of the construction of a hospital with more than a thousand beds for coronavirus infected people in just a few days was completely delighted.

The construction of the Huoshenshan Hospital began on the evening of January 23, and on the afternoon of February 2, documents on its readiness were signed. The hospital is designed for a thousand people. The first patients went on treatment on February 3. About 1,400 military doctors work at the hospital.

How did it start?

The Chinese are using technologies in which the building is assembled from ready-made modules.

The most difficult part of such a project is the foundation. But since modular structures are light, there is no need to make it deep. The main thing is to concentrate forces. For this, several hundred pieces of equipment and 10 thousand workers were assembled in Wuhan. The Chinese already have experience of such construction. In 2003, when there was an outbreak of SARS, they built a hospital in Beijing in a few days, designed for temporary operation. But now technology has gone ahead. And the new hospitals in Wuhan will serve for many years.

How do they do it?

The modular construction process is already well debugged and follows a well-established scenario.

First, excavators and bulldozers leveled the ground at the construction site in about 48 hours. 20 cm of sand was poured over the ground. Two layers of geotextile made of synthetic fabric with a waterproof layer in the middle were laid on a layer of sand. The sand was again poured from above. Then, for several days, the builders poured a concrete foundation. Beams were laid on the foundation and a metal frame from quarto plate steel as installed on them. This is a kind of skeleton of a building.

Then, using the sandwich panels, they built the hospital.

Why is steel the technology of the future?

The level of today's production of steel allows combining elegance, art, and functionality into one whole almost without limits. Steel structures provide new solutions and opportunities, allowing architects to expand their imagination and realize the most complex concepts. What was once considered impossible has now become a reality. High speed of construction, low cost, strength, functionality, operational flexibility, and suitability for processing structural steel make it the material of choice in construction around the world.

A new era has come for structural steel. Today it provides not only durability but also beauty and attractiveness durability - something that is very difficult or very expensive to obtain when working with other materials.

High-speed construction

The speed is very important. Each additional month of operation of an object of the commercial or industrial building generates to the owner millions of dollars of operating income.

Cost

Studies confirm that steel is the most cost-effective design solution for low and multi-story construction.

There is a common myth that steel construction is more expensive than concrete construction. In the past five years, as a result of the constant increase in energy prices, a significant appreciation of cement has been observed. Together with an increase in the cost of labor at the construction site and lower prices for metal and fireproof materials, steel construction today is the best choice in low-rise commercial and industrial construction.

Architectural expressiveness

Architects around the world have praised steel as the perfect material to realize the ambitions of their customers. Steel in itself is an adornment, and many architects use pronounced steel elements in the design of their buildings.