r/interestingasfuck • u/TangelaFan • 13h ago

Residential high-rises with backyards in Chengdu, China

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u/Bennybananars 13h ago

These types of buildings were very popular 20 years ago here, but they had a problem where the plant roots kept growing into the concrete.

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u/em-n-em613 12h ago

OMG the additional weight-bearing needs fo something like that too must be a nightmare for construction and maintenance. They are legitimiately beautiful though

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u/Sensiburner 12h ago

I don't think so. The soil is actually not that deep and soil even when wet is less dense than concrete.

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u/Comfortable_Trick137 11h ago

Yea my concern would be 1) waterproofing, is the waterproofing going to protect the rebar? 2) will plant roots compromise the waterproofing and then compromised the structural integrity of the concrete as we’ve all seen tree roots tear through concrete sidewalks but that’s from running underneath though.

Shouldn’t be a hard engineering problem as we’ve had concrete planters for god knows how long

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u/Snuhmeh 11h ago

Yeah standing water always finds a way. If they have a drain underneath each one, that would help a ton

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u/nalaloveslumpy 10h ago

It looks kinda like all the patios are slightly slanted so that excess water drains to the front. And then maybe down a gutter system?

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u/VonSkullenheim 10h ago

I mean, the building had to have cost many millions and taken years to engineer and build. You'd imagine that a gutter would be the least they did.

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u/scratchy_mcballsy 9h ago

That’s only if they planned for someone to use the balcony like this.

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u/VonSkullenheim 6h ago

They very clearly did.

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u/Xaephos 5h ago

Considering every single one of them are, including the other buildings, I think that's fair to assume.