truffledog wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 3:07 pm I always wondered how those shiny skycrapers and other megabuildings in China (and other megastructures) wuold look like in 20-50 years time. If they even make it to those marks.

Random Dude wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 5:03 pm

truffledog wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 3:07 pm I always wondered how those shiny skycrapers and other megabuildings in China (and other megastructures) wuold look like in 20-50 years time. If they even make it to those marks.

I lived in a near new apartment complex in China for about 5 years. When I moved in it was between one and two years old - I used to walk past while it was being built and think the location was perfect for me and the apartments looked really nice and modern, so when my old landlord pissed me off I was able to rent a place in this new community.

The buildings were big, 18 stories high and each floor had about 10 apartments in it.

During the five years I lived there the building I was in aged a lot. Ceiling tiles in the hallway fell off, chunks of plaster fell off the walls, there were damp patches on the exterior walls where water was getting in, my floor to ceiling window let wind through because it wasn't sealed properly - the building management actually had to have all the windows on that side of that building resealed, internal fixtures like floor tiles, doors etc were cheap crap that fell apart. The second year I was there we (the residents) had a few months where the water would be turned off for sometimes days at a time because the plumbing was cheap shit and had to be replaced, probably with more cheap shit. There were two elevators in the building and they developed issues about three years in, I had a terrifying experience in one of them, seriously thought I might be killed in a cheap Chinese elevator. The scariest thing though was a huge crack that appeared in the ceiling and one wall and I couldn't close my bedroom door. I don't think there had been an earthquake so possibly poor foundations... on really windy nights when the wind would rattle and flex my poorly fitted window I'd try not to think about it falling out and killing someone on the ground or the whole building just collapsing.

I really pity anyone that bought one of those apartments, the only way I could see them having any value in another 5-10 years would be when another developer wants the prime location they're on to build another shoddy community.