Chapter 167 I don't produce cheap, I'm just a cheap porter
Friday, August 27, 1999.
The day of the groundbreaking ceremony for the Burj Al Arab Hotel.
Gu Kun got up early, put on all his attire, and was fully prepared for the upcoming ceremony.
Because it is still hot in Lanzhou at the end of August, and considering that some guests will wear suits, the air-conditioning facilities must be sufficient.
The Chinese construction company responsible for the construction set up a viewing platform surrounded on three sides and open on one side, as well as a smaller version with half of it hollowed out, on the northwest coast of the main island of Lanfang, on the beach opposite the Sailing Seaview Hotel, half a month in advance.
It's almost the same as a gymnasium.
The walls and roof of the viewing platform are made of double-layer vacuum glass, which is expensive but can effectively block heat conduction.
However, anyone who has studied junior high school physics knows that there are three major ways of heat flow, namely heat conduction, heat convection and heat radiation.
Conduction and convection can be solved by vacuum glass, but radiation cannot be solved. The glass material also creates a greenhouse effect like a sunroom, just like a car parked outside in the summer. It feels sour when you first go in after being exposed to the sun for a long time.
It's simply not something humans can resist.
Therefore, Gu Kun asked the construction team to choose vacuum glass, and also made a retractable silver-white reflective coating sandwich. The opening and closing of the reflective coating can be controlled by a remote control motor. In this way, in addition to letting in some sunlight to create an atmosphere when speaking, other
It can reflect sunlight most of the time.
Even so, the viewing platform still uses thousands of kilowatts of central air conditioning for cooling, which is equivalent to the power of thousands of cabinet air conditioners.
For a one-time building, not counting other costs, it cost millions of dollars just to install air conditioning. This level of arrogance really made the Chinese personnel responsible for the construction dumbfounded.
"Master Gu's family really doesn't know if there is too much money to spend or something else. Even if you have money, you can't build it like this."
"Who knows, I heard that he has made an unknown amount of money in the financial market. He is also an oil tycoon. He also took advantage of the Southeast Asian financial crisis to buy a lot of Malay mining resources. In the future, he may not only own the oil fields in Lanfang, but also
Where are the Malaysian shares in the Sarawak oil field!”
"Malays have been in Sarawak. Since ancient times, there have been copper mines, gold mines and diamond mines. I heard that Gu Kun took all the diamond mines in one pot. Hey, it's really a drought. The rich are rich in everything they do.
!Getting richer and richer! What a stupid world!"
Rumors like this were frequently circulated when the Chinese construction workers were working on the project.
The conscience of heaven and earth, the Sarawak gold mine and diamond mining rights that Gu Kun grabbed were actually just a little addition to the copper mine. He was also the richest man in Malay. Li Jingshen, the boss of the industrial oxygen industry, gave him some advice, and he was the first to sign the economic stimulus investment agreement.
Added to Riga.
The net profit that this gold or diamond mine brings to him every year is in the eight-digit range, which is tens of millions of dollars, definitely less than 100 million.
Unfortunately, history has proven that Boss Li’s suggestion is really scheming. For the melon-eating masses, the imagination of things like gold mines and diamond mines is too tempting. A small booger business with a profit of tens of millions has been rumored to be a
One of Gu Kun’s main sources of profit.
Who makes the world like to continue to give money to the richest people? It seems that in this way, they can participate in making history. When talking after tea and dinner, they subconsciously inject a layer of "Look, the richest man in the world is so rich!"
There is also my contribution in it!" A sense of historical heroism.
Those stinky fans who chase stars by chasing the most popular stars have the same mentality in principle, but the degree is a bit more stupid.
Human beings are born with a base bone that is a slave to the Matthew Effect. Competing for the title of the world's number one in showing off wealth is just a matter of digging out this base bone of all mankind.
Gu Kun does not produce anything cheap, he is a porter of nature's beauty.
…
At about 9 a.m., most of the guests attending the ceremony began to arrive one after another. The seats at the auditorium were very spacious, fruits and tea were available, and the air-conditioning was fully turned on.
There are glass walls on three sides of the viewing platform, and the front side facing the sea is completely open, so the ventilation is very good. The air conditioner is completely forced against the completely transparent environment on one side, and the power of the bricks can fly into the sky to force cooling. So.
You won't feel bored even if you sit for a long time.
In the crowd, there were also several bosses and executives of Chinese Internet companies. Because they were friends with Gu Kun, they were invited over to eat, drink and have fun together. Ma Feng, Zhang Chaoyang and others were also among them.
Gu Kun would not give out red envelopes, nor would he give travel expenses to reporters, as that would be detrimental to his character. Just as people in Dubai would not give red envelopes to reporters who brag about Dubai's wealthy people, for the same reason.
However, it is normal to eat well, drink well, and express your richness to the fullest.
The media people in Internet companies also know that after eating, drinking and having fun, they have to write soft articles when they should, and it is necessary to cooperate with the hype and create a tone of envy, jealousy and hatred in the domestic online media.
Zhang Chaoyang, who is now at the top of his game, is also a leader in the small circle and is highly respected by his peers.
He put his hands on his eyes, looked at the sun for a while, and chatted with Ma Feng beside him: "It doesn't seem like the foundation stone of this hotel will be laid today, right? I see that several areas on the sea level have already been leveled.
"
Ma Feng has a close relationship with Gu Kun and knows more: "But the design plan of Tongji University was only officially approved recently. The previous ones were probably reclamation operations. Strictly speaking, they are not in the hotel construction stage. It is said that today
There’s nothing wrong with laying the foundation.”
Gu Kun wanted to catch up with the progress, so he asked the people from Jiaotong University to come up with the preliminary basic plan in advance, finish the reclamation work, and then wait for the economic side to fully approve the superstructure plan. This way, the parallel operation can be faster and can
Let the ceremony have more content to show to the guests and be more convincing.
It’s better than the experience of later generations of Dubai residents pointing to an empty sea and drawing pie cakes.
While those Internet media people were chatting, the organizer had opened the curtain on the booth, and a huge promotional rendering was placed on it, showing what the hotel would look like after completion, as well as a high-precision 20-ratio
1 Miniature model for everyone to see more intuitively.
According to the design specifications of Gu Kun's sailing hotel, the tallest main building has more than 30 floors and is more than 100 meters high. Therefore, the 20:1 miniature model is still 6 to 7 meters high, almost reaching the glass roof of the viewing platform.
As soon as the models and renderings were taken out, everyone was slightly shocked and amazed by the design of the hotel.
"Gentlemen and ladies, I am very happy that everyone can come and join us today to participate in the foundation laying ceremony of our Lanfang Sailing Hotel..." Gu Kun also appeared at the right time and said some words in a very gentlemanly manner.
Then, let the beautiful secretary guest commentator explain the design and future grade of the hotel and position these details.
At the same time, there was a row of waitresses handing out 500:1 miniatures to everyone present as one of the souvenirs to take away (of course there will also be other truly valuable souvenirs)
With a scale of 500 times, the model is only a few centimeters tall, making it very easy to carry around in your suitcase.
"The design of the Lanfang Sailing Hotel project is inspired by the classic three-masted sailing ship in the Age of Discovery. It is composed of three shell-shaped white sails as the main building..."
The spectators followed the eloquent explanations and admired the models in front of them.
The outer wall texture and modeling inspiration of Gu Kun's hotel are somewhat similar to those of the Dubai Burj Al Arab Hotel in later generations. It also relies on the design of Sydney's Grand Opera House - the Sydney Opera House actually borrowed from the 'Spray and Shell' design.
Inspiration, the curved surfaces of the layers of white tiles were originally intended to imitate the effect of giant seashells.
This kind of design can always catch people's attention quickly, which is caused by the instinct of human visual communication. As long as sufficient design novelty is added, it can often become a world-class landmark.
The Burj Al Arab Hotel in Lanfang is designed as three independent "shells" that are slightly separated. The two front shells are the same pointed "triangle sails" as the Sydney Opera House/Dubai Burj Al Arab Hotel. The two "triangle sails" are between
The spacing is also slightly further apart.
The third sail at the back is a square sail or square sail. This square sail building is the shortest of the three buildings. It is like the auxiliary yard sail at the end of the ancient three-masted sailboat, which is close to the main sail.
It's also relatively close.
The most important thing is that this sail-shaped building is actually in the air - because it has the smallest number of floors and is the shortest, only about 40 meters high, so this sail-shaped building can be directly supported by a steel column.
Rising from the sea, there is only one pillar connected to the sea and the bottom.
In this way, this pillar looks like a mast for hanging sails. With a touch of magic, the magnanimity of a country founded by seafaring is vividly reflected on the paper.
The other two larger buildings with triangular sails are 100% grounded, and the reclamation foundations are very solid. This is also what the people who built the Tongji Institute have repeatedly calculated, and they feel that Building 3, which is only 30 to 40 meters tall, is
If it is made into a structure with a steel column thrust to the bottom of the sea, it can be sustained. If it is larger, it will be a safety risk.
The main sail building in the middle is 158 meters high and has 32 floors. Each floor above the second floor is 4.5 meters high, which is relatively spacious. The hall on the first floor is even more impressive, with a height of more than ten meters. It covers an area of about 2,400 square meters.
The forward sail building is 108 meters high, has 24 floors and covers an area of 1,500 square meters.
The net height of Weihengfan Building is 54 meters, and the inner floor height of the building is 46 meters. There are 10 floors in total, and the area of each floor is only 500 square meters - because this building is very "thin", the shape was originally designed to imitate a canvas filled with wind.
There is only one row of rooms on each floor.
This plan can be regarded as maximizing the freedom of imagination.
Between the three "independent sail bodies", the imaginative and imaginative connection of the viewing glass walkway is like the cable between the mast and the mast, giving people a feeling of being swayed by the wind.
When the guests at the ceremony looked at the model, what they were most worried about was, "It's beautiful, but can contemporary mankind's architectural technology really create such a sci-fi building with a sense of future technology? How can such a distorted and exaggerated impressionism be achieved?"
See how it feels like it will collapse at any time."
Especially the guests from mainland China, whose aesthetics have been constrained by decades of economical and simple tube towers. Looking at the Sydney Opera House feels like science fiction, let alone the Burj Al Arab Hotel.
"The designers at Tongji are really lucky. Meeting a boss who burns money regardless of the cost gives them a chance to realize their dreams."
"I just don't know if it can be built. As long as it can be built and the promised decoration plan is fulfilled, there is no doubt that it will win the world's most luxurious hotel."
"I'm afraid even if it is built, there won't be that many swindlers willing to pay this money to live in it. Otherwise, if it is so easy to make money, why haven't others invested earlier? Building a house is not a very technical thing, Gu Kun can think of it.
Other smart people must have thought of it earlier, right?"
The last view is probably the most prevalent among the guests attending the ceremony.
Almost everyone takes it for granted: there are no opportunities to pick up the slack in this world, and others don’t expect it because it must be because there is no future and no room for maneuver.