A 118-meter-high office building is dismantled in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, in November 2015. (File photo/Chinanews.com)
(ECNS) -- About 460 million square meters of buildings may have been demolished ahead of their designed service life in China annually from 2011 to 2015, with associated costs likely to have hit 460 billion yuan ($69.8 billion) each year, according to China Youth Daily.
The paper reached these estimates based on a report released by the China Academy of Building Research (CABR) in 2014. It said that a total of 4.6 billion square meters of buildings were demolished in China from 2006 to 2010, 2 billion square meters of which had been in service for less than 40 years when removed.
In early December, media reports unveiled demolition plans for three skyscrapers -- at 137, 188 and 208 meters in height -- which are still under construction in North China's Tianjin. Their developer was being investigated on suspicion of breaking the law and for being financially incapable of continuing the project. The buildings also had potential signs of serious safety risks, the paper said.
In November, a 118-meter-high office building was dismantled in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province. The building, with a floor area totaling 37,290 meters, was never put into use after construction finished in 1999. Demolition of the building consumed 1.4 tons of explosives and 12,000 detonators, while dirt from the demolition spread across a whole block. Ruins piled up more than 20 meters high and occupied an area equal to three soccer fields.
These short-lived buildings have drawn attention from across China. According to national architecture rules, the main structure of major buildings and high-rises should last 100 years, and 50-100 years for ordinary buildings.
The CABR report estimated that demolition of short-lived buildings generated 400 million tons of waste every year, accounting for about 40 percent of the country's yearly total and increasing China's annual carbon emission by 10 percent.
The CABR has investigated 54 short-lived buildings exposed by media reports from 2001 to 2010 and found that reasonable demolitions due to quality and safety concerns and developers violating city planning rules accounted for only 10 percent. Among the unreasonable demolitions, cases involving building functions being outdated, commercial interests and image projects accounted for 55 percent.
Experts also blame local governments for frequently changing city development plans.
