Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 224 Hayek's Big Hand

The doctoral degree-granting institution awarding ceremony was rather somber and doesn't need much description.

The multi-functional hall was mostly frequented by middle-aged and elderly faculty and staff, offering Chen Xuebing little opportunity to receive admiring glances.

Chen Xuebing's speech was just a standard student speech; the school didn't want his passionate speech, but rather his status.

Becoming a student at a top-tier university is certainly a joyful experience, but this has been promoted for almost two years. When it actually happened, it was just the fulfillment of a psychological expectation, and I couldn't really feel excited.

What's a bit special is that we've invited many outstanding alumni from both the business and political alumni fields to discuss and plan for the 11th anniversary celebration this November.

There are many leaders from road and bridge engineering bureaus and state-owned enterprises.

One of the alumni is very famous.

Meng Fanchao.

He has presided over the survey and design of more than 20 national-level mega-bridges. It is said that his team has been selected as the core design team for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. He also served as the chief designer of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge two years ago, and carried out the preliminary preparations for the project.

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, a project of the century, took more than a decade to build and had a total investment of over 100 billion yuan.

Chen Xuebing had been to that bridge. It's a bridge that stretches for tens of kilometers, and there's also an immersed tunnel in the sea that connects Zhuhai with Hong Kong and Macau. It's amazing to see such a spectacle created in the vast white sea. He was amazed for a long time when he drove through it.

Unexpectedly, Chen Xuebing was able to meet the chief designer in person, who turned out to be an alumnus. He couldn't help but go up and greet him, and they chatted for a few minutes.

He had slightly wavy hair styled in a side-swept style, and wore a sharp suit, looking very impressive.

When Meng Fanchao heard about Chen Xuebing's legendary experience as a student, he smiled and offered a few words of encouragement.

"Junior, life is a constant struggle. You are so young, don't let success stop you. The future of China is so vast, you must go and see even higher places."

Chen Xuebing agreed wholeheartedly, and the two exchanged phone numbers, agreeing to meet again at the school's anniversary celebration.

After the meeting, Chen Xuebing thanked District Chief Hong for attending, exchanged a few pleasantries, asked Jiao Gui to take the district chief back, and then went to his office with Liang Naixing.

Liang Naixing has a very practical work style. He focuses on the design at hand and immediately called in several senior professors from the Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning to see what kind of design Chen Xuebing wanted and whether they could take on the task.

When the professors heard that a non-linear design was required, along with a novel style, they called in two graduate students who were very talented in design.

Chen Xuebing also took a piece of A4 paper and casually drew a front view. He labeled it "glass curtain wall," but feeling it was a bit empty, he added the "DL" logo of Pang Donglai.

It's a bit abstract and doesn't feel grand at all.

He then wiped away the bottom edge of the glass curtain wall and moved it down a bit.

Looking at it this way, she's gained a lot of weight.

Chen Xuebing nodded in satisfaction.

It was still abstract, but a master's student next to him understood what he meant.

"A curved building needs a grand signboard, right?"

"Hey, that's right."

How tall is the building?

"Four floors. Each floor must be at least five meters high, right? 21-23 meters, I guess."

"That glass curtain wall will be at least 12 meters high. What color should it be?"

"White."

"White doesn't reflect light. Have you heard of the Mayor's Building in Guangzhou? It has a golden glass curtain wall that glitters in the sunlight."

Chen Xuebing immediately shook his head.

"There is no need for reflection. There is a kind of LED film screen that is covered on the back of the glass curtain wall. It can emit light electrically and the brightness can be adjusted."

Upon hearing this, even the master's student shook his head.

"The LED halo on the film is too strong. If you want to make it more advanced, you should use LED glass. Place the LED beads between two layers of glass, and paint the surface white. Use different colored LEDs with the white coating to create the color you want. The effect will be much better."

Chen Xuebing was taken aback: "There are LED light glass now?"

"Yes, there are factories in Shanghai that are for sale, but the technology is not very mature, so it's best to use imported ones."

"But glass curtain walls can be hot-bent, right? Can LED glass be made into a curved surface?"

Chen Xuebing asked the question, then realized he was being a bit silly. Even BOE, which makes mobile phone screens, couldn't make curved surfaces, so how could they possibly make engineering glass?

The master's student waved his hand and drew small, scale-like shapes on the curtain wall on an A4 sheet of paper.

"Without curved surfaces, using small glass pieces to piece together actually creates a more layered appearance. However, it is very expensive, requires advanced construction techniques, and demands great care."

"Oh," Chen Xuebing laughed, "That's not a problem. What we're going to build is a landmark building. If the administrators aren't skilled enough, we can hire them. It's a good opportunity to train the construction team's skills."

What he wants is difficulty.

Otherwise, just make a square shape; why bother with design or curved surfaces?
Nowadays, everywhere you look, there are boxy buildings, overly focused on practicality, lacking any sense of design. The materials are the same old three, and the construction has become a standardized paradigm. Anyone can hire a slightly experienced construction worker to put up the floors one by one. What he wants is to be different, to create beautiful buildings that enhance the overall quality of the city.

In addition, we must continuously strengthen the construction of the project, make them realize the importance of highly skilled workers, and gradually select and cultivate a high-level construction team.

With its building products and excellent construction skills, Gu Anli has established a strong reputation.

In the future, the strong will get stronger and the weak will be eliminated. Only companies and teams that can challenge what others cannot will survive.

“Um,” the master’s student pointed to a few places and said, “This kind of building requires a lot of precast concrete, and the error must be strictly controlled. On-site splicing is prone to misalignment and grout leakage. The hoisting of components relies on manual positioning with a total station, which is very inefficient. I can try to use BIM software to make a 3D model for you, which will make the assembly more intuitive, but this software is not very mature and I cannot guarantee success. If it doesn’t work, we will still have to rely on manual lifting.”

Chen Xuebing looked the young man up and down and smiled approvingly: "It's okay, you can go to the site and keep an eye on things if you can, and we can even increase the design fee."

These words left the group somewhat confused.

What design fee?

“Well, Mr. Chen is planning to donate a fund of about three million for this project.” Liang Naixing coughed. “He requires the design of this project to be innovative. I’m not an architecture professional and I don’t know much about the latest building materials. I called you here so you could take a look and see if you can do it and do it well. If you all think you can take on this project, the fund will provide rewards to those who participate.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Xuebing immediately added, "If I can participate in the entire on-site construction process, I can increase it to 500 million."

The atmosphere suddenly became a bit awkward.

500 million.

There are fewer than 10 people in this office.

Even if the school takes half, how much money will each person get?

In just two or three seconds, an old professor stared intently at the draft on the table and began to speak eloquently: "What Xiao Yang said earlier is right. Curved buildings have obvious nonlinear stress characteristics, and BIM is not very mature. However, we are using free software. We can buy a more expensive set of dedicated software to make simplified assumptions. In fact, we can also use some flexible materials, such as titanium zinc plates and GRC."

A professor nearby immediately chimed in: "Yes, there are many connection nodes for non-standard components, and each node needs to be designed individually."

"Mr. Chen only drew the front view. What about the back? Is it linear or non-linear?"

This question made Chen Xuebing ponder for a moment.

In its previous life, the design of Angel City by Pang Donglai was an external curved surface with towers on both sides and a linear design at the back. However, the land in Jiangbei had no obstruction on the side, and the back was made square, which would look very ugly from a distance.

"The view over there is more open, so let's build a fluid-shaped building. It'll look beautiful, and the internal layout will look more even, making it easier to plan. We should also increase the amount of light-transmitting surfaces on the top floor."

"The problem of light transmission is easy to solve, just use the titanium dome from the National Centre for the Performing Arts! However, irregular buildings have a high risk of center positioning deviation, so the equipment must be of high quality. Simplified models are probably not feasible. Circumferential stress and radial loads are easily ignored, and stress may become too concentrated. Once a small settlement occurs, it will lead to stress redistribution, and the building may deform."

Chen Xuebing scratched the back of his head: "The design doesn't need to be too complicated. Safety and sturdiness are the most important things, and overall aesthetics are also important. Are these issues costly to handle? Are they easy to solve?"

"Brilliant! But it can be solved!" One person slammed his hand on the desk. "Our stress laboratory can even simulate a bridge model, so a four-story building is nothing!"

Now, everyone chimed in with their own words, offering suggestions and advice with great enthusiasm.

These old professors didn't utter a single word at first. Didn't they not understand?

They know more than those two little children.

At first, I thought it was just a simple favor that would take a lot of time, so I figured I could just let the students do it.

Now I hear they have so much money that they've used up all their lab resources.

Seeing this, Liang Naixing sighed. These old guys usually go out to give lectures and appear on shows, taking on various ways to earn extra money; they all want to make money.

It seems this can't be stopped now.

However, this young Chen was very generous, adding two million in one go.
There's no need to stop them.

Chen Xuebing chuckled inwardly.

As expected of a transportation university, there are so many experts here. They're all contributing their ideas, and they've almost come up with a solution.

If these professors weren't after a permanent position, they could spend two years adapting to the market and finding a job at a larger design company, and they would earn several times more than they do now.

“Principal, since everyone thinks this design is feasible, I will have the company’s people come to handle the fund matters tomorrow. We have already acquired the land, and I can take you to see it tomorrow.”

As Chen Xuebing spoke, he stood up and shook hands with Principal Liang.

Principal Liang was somewhat surprised: "The design draft hasn't even been finalized yet, and this is already..."

The rest of the words remained unspoken: "So you're just donating money like that? That's too straightforward, isn't it?"

"I trust the teachers and the school's capabilities. I have to go on a business trip tomorrow and I have some work to arrange later. The company's people will come to coordinate. I hope the principal will keep this in mind and consider the teachers' benefits and compensation as much as possible. After the project is successfully completed, I will have other things to say to the school."

Chen Xuebing was determined to bring Jiaotong University onto his cause, so he naturally wanted them to see tangible benefits immediately.

"Principal Liang, please consider starting a company. I previously inspected two projects in Pengshui. They are both quite large and involve a wide range of majors. I hope to establish a joint venture with the school. The school is about to celebrate its 55th anniversary, and it is worthwhile to make some changes. As students of our school, we are eager to participate in such changes."

Chen Xuebing left without saying much.

Human nature is driven by self-interest, just like the behavior of those professors. Hayek's influence will drive everything forward.

(End of this chapter)