142: A towering building rises from the ground.

Early the next morning, Tian Ming arrived at the open space next to the warehouse, where a middle-aged man was already waiting for him.

The person waiting for Tian Ming was an architectural expert, specializing in building skyscrapers. His surname was Lu, and his name was Architectural Expert Lu. He had also entered the Hua Xin Group's base through connections.

When the base personnel relocated, he moved with them. However, his profession was not of much use at the original base.

A person skilled in designing skyscrapers, living in a cave, found his talents completely useless.

When Architectural Expert Lu saw Tian Ming arrive, he quickly greeted him with great respect.

Tian Ming could certainly handle low-rise buildings himself. But today, he wanted to do something big: directly build a skyscraper over three hundred meters tall.

This required a consultant to determine how deep the foundation should be, the support structure, and to consider issues like wind resistance.

With scientific building methods and Tian Ming's readily available high-strength materials, this building would not only be sturdy but also have a high floor area ratio, capable of housing at least six thousand people.

The reason for building it so high was also to use it as a giant watchtower for the Shelter.

At over three hundred meters, with a signal tower on top, a base station, and then a 360-degree ultra-high-definition surveillance system equipped with laser radar, wouldn't the situation within dozens of kilometers around be completely under his control?

"Architectural Expert Lu, for a building over three hundred meters tall, used as a dormitory, how many people can it accommodate?" Tian Ming asked.

Architectural Expert Lu pondered for a moment and said, "Boss, your idea is a bit unrealistic. A building over three hundred meters tall used as a dormitory would create significant safety hazards."

Tian Ming smiled and said, "Of course I understand that. However, I will personally build it, using materials with the highest toughness and strength for the support structure. So, discard your old design thinking and unleash your imagination. How should this building be constructed to accommodate as many people as possible?"

"That's hard to say, because the layout and structure of each building are different. Boss, I want to ask, how big do you want this building to be, and what is the approximate area of each floor?"

Tian Ming thought for a moment and said, "Let's make it a cubic 'pillar reaching the sky,' with a side length of 60 meters, so each floor will have an area of about 3,600 square meters."

Architectural Expert Lu quickly took out his tablet computer and opened an engineering file using professional architectural design software.

There were many successful cases of the kind of building Tian Ming described. He had several similar engineering files.

Architectural Expert Lu said, "For a building around three hundred meters, if it's for living, designed with a floor height of three meters per floor, and accounting for walls, facades, load-bearing columns, elevator shafts, and stairwells, the usable living area would be approximately 2,800 square meters."

Tian Ming also asked curiously, "So much loss?"

Architectural Expert Lu zoomed in on the model on the tablet and said to Tian Ming, "Boss, if you build it, the material strength will certainly not be an issue. Many things can be lightweighted, which can save a lot of space."

Tian Ming smiled and said, "I don't understand, and you don't need to explain so much to me. Just tell me, if built in the fastest way possible, how many people can this three-hundred-meter-tall building accommodate!"

Architectural Expert Lu pondered for a moment and said, "Conservatively calculated, with a per capita living area of thirty square meters, it can accommodate ten thousand people. The total number of floors would be 100-110, with a total living area of no less than 280,000 square meters."

"Good, build it like that!" Tian Ming was very satisfied. Once this building was constructed, the living problem of the Shelter would be perfectly solved.

"Boss, is it just the two of us?" Architectural Expert Lu asked, feeling somewhat incredulous.

"Yes, just the two of us. First, we'll lay the foundation. I'll dig a sixty-meter by sixty-meter pit. Just answer as I ask. I will build according to your requirements. If this building collapses due to structural problems, the responsibility will be entirely yours," Tian Ming said.

Architectural Expert Lu immediately felt immense pressure, but with the high-strength materials provided by the boss, he believed that even if some parts of the building were poorly designed, it wouldn't collapse. After all, structures like carbon nanotubes and carbon fiber could be used to build space elevators.

Architectural Expert Lu nodded and said, "Boss, wait for me. I'll go get a laser rangefinder. We don't need to dig down completely; we only need to dig the pile foundation areas."

"Go, and be quick," Tian Ming said.

When Architectural Expert Lu returned, the laser rangefinder began to pinpoint the location of each pile foundation. With a casual grab, a dozen carbon fiber rods appeared in his hand.

"Here, take these. Insert rods at all the pile foundation locations on the ground."

Architectural Expert Lu nodded and said, "Okay, no problem."

With that, Architectural Expert Lu took the laser rangefinder, measured the distances, and then positioned each pile foundation.

"Done, Boss," Architectural Expert Lu wiped the fine sweat from his forehead.

Tian Ming walked to a placed rod. Digging a pit was very simple for Tian Ming. This building was hundreds of meters high, so the piles had to reach the bedrock to ensure the stability of the building's foundation.

Due to underground karst caves, after digging to 30 meters, he had almost reached the underground rock layer. The earth from the pile foundations was also refined into iron elements, and the remaining earth was made into cement. Everything proceeded in an orderly fashion.

In just one day, the pile foundations were completed. The pouring work was also completed simultaneously; there was basically no need to wait for the cement to dry, as Tian Ming's ability could greatly accelerate this process.

When pouring concrete, Architectural Expert Lu required a certain proportion of steel wire in the concrete. The central load-bearing columns of the building, in addition to concrete, were also reinforced with carbon fiber and other new materials. If these materials were to be manufactured industrially, they would be astronomically expensive and impossible to use in actual engineering applications.

But for Tian Ming, there were no cost considerations for these materials.

Early the next morning, Architectural Expert Lu designed the entire load-bearing structure frame of the building based on the arrangement of the pile foundations. After building all the frames first, he would then specifically plan each floor.

In terms of design, Architectural Expert Lu adopted the simplest and most effective method—modular design. This not only saved time but also maximized the quality of the building. To provide a clear visualization, Architectural Expert Lu directly 3D printed the entire frame structure of the building.

This way, the boss would have an intuitive understanding, and the construction speed would also be faster.

The design of the remaining rooms also adopted a modular approach. Modular design means that each floor of the building is designed as a separate module, and then each module is 3D printed.

These modules would be broken down into small structural components, allowing the boss to scale them up proportionally. Finally, it would only be necessary to assemble these modules onto the entire load-bearing structure, just like building blocks.

This construction method is already very mature in the industry. Many concrete components are completed directly in factories and then hoisted into place. The strength of such buildings depends on the overall load-bearing structure and the rationality of each component's design, and it can maximize material savings.

Architectural Expert Lu's design also taught Tian Ming a lot; the development of every industry is built on accumulated experience, and experts in every field are important assets to the Shelter.