Dubai's Burj Khalifa may have its status of "world's tallest building" usurped at the end of the year by a rival yet to break ground. BSC is set to begin construction next month on the 2,750-foot (838-meter), 220-story high Sky City in Changsha, China, and thanks to a process where the building's components are mass-produced in factories ahead of time, the project is planned for completion by the end of the year. A total of 19,000 workers will prefabricate the parts in four months before commencing a three-month assembly process on site.

The manufacturing process means that the building will also be easy to replicate in other areas; BSC told Treehugger that the project is intended to address the growing population of the world. Sky City will feature apartments, schools, recreational facilities, and more, reducing the per capita use of land and the need to move around. BSC claims a fivefold increase in energy efficiency over buildings built with conventional techniques.

Sky City's design is said to be earthquake-resistant to 9.0 magnitude, with "over 10 sessions of government assembled expert group reviews" verifying its overall safety. While cramming thousands of people into a colossal tower may not make for the most comfortable of abodes, BSC believes that it signals the way forward for Chinese cities, saying "Urbanization can not be materialized at the cost of land and environmental pollution."