When Forest City Ratner broke ground on the first of its apartment buildings at Atlantic Yards, a 32-story tower at Atlantic Avenue and Dean Street, it was poised to be "the world’s tallest prefabricated, or modular, building," according to The New York Times.

But it one crazy Chinese developer makes good on his word, next month that record will be shattered: Broad Sustainable Building says it will begin work on its 220-story, 838-meter (about 2,750 feet) prefabricated tower, which they're calling Sky City, next month, according to Treehugger.

Economically, the building makes absolutely no sense. It will feature over 11 million square feet (or is it 13 million? The facts for this project always seem to be in flux) of floorspace in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. With more than 7 million inhabitants, Changsha is by no means a small city, but density like this could only possibly pencil out in the densest and most valuable of city cores. And yet, the project appears to be sited outside of the city center, surrounded by acres of open green space.

When the building got a flurry of press last year, we assumed it was just a publicity stunt. BSB did manage to build a 30-story tower in 15 days, so they're not total charlatans, but they did encounter a fair amount of skepticism.

"I don't think it's possible to build [a 838-meter tower] as quickly as they claim," structural engineer Bart Leclercq, who's worked on a number of skyscrapers for WSP Middle East, told Middle East Architect. "If they manage to build this structure in three months then I will give up structural engineering. I will hang my hat and retire. I will be eating humble pie as well."

Luckily, Mr. Leclercq won't have to do that: the developers have quietly rolled the time frame back to seven months of construction (or is it six?). Check out the promotional video above.

(And some friendly to BSB: hire some native speakers to do your English-language marketing. The Observer would be happy to offer our services in exchange for a high-floor penthouse. But don't try to stick us with any of those two-digit floors—we know you can do better.)

Cozy. (Matt Chaban)

Atlantic Yards living. (SHoP)

Well, modular is here, and it's real. After decades of dreaming by architects, an unlikely patron, developer Bruce Ratner, has made it possible to build a New York City building in a factory, assembling the units on site. Instead of cars, we will now be rolling apartments off an assembly line.

New Yorkers got their first look at the product, too, or at least the "chasis" around which these units will be built, at a ground breaking for the first Atlantic Yards residential tower, B2, nestled up beside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. 

"This may be the means and method to create more opportunities for construction that would not have existed if it were not for this technology," Gary LaBarbera, head of the New York City Building Trades Council declared from the dais.

Mr. LaBarbera has become an unlikely ally for the development, considering many union jobs were promised when this project came along, and a good deal of the savings modular offers is through limiting the most high-cost jobs of certain union workers. The units will still be constructed in a union shop at a factory, but using lower-paid workers. Still, Mr. Labarbera seemed pleased that what he touted as 125 new union jobs, even if they were low-paying, were better than none at all.

B2. (SHoP)

Plus, there are the other opportunities this new technology opens up, not only making unfeasible projects buildable, thanks to the estimated 30 percent savings, but it could also convert non-union jobs to unionized ones. Bruce Ratner, Mayor Bloomberg and Borough President Marty Markowitz all cheered on the possibility of modular housing becoming a booming export from Brooklyn and elsewhere in the city. "It's a whole new industry, born here in Brooklyn," Mr. Markowitz proudly declared.

"Many of the guys working on these types of projects are the same ones who could be living in these units," Mr. LaBarbera said.

Having seen them now, would you?