Shortly after I moved into my flat in Singapore about a year ago, I found out that right in my “back yard” a 70-story skyscraper (Altez) was breaking ground. I guess most people would be a little put out that their view is getting blocked, but actually I was quite excited (although, it was also interesting to watch the formerly visible shipyard load ships). I find construction sites to be fascinating and educational. However, I don’t have the time to just stare out my window all day, so with a little help from xobs I modded a chumby One and added a USB camera to it, and created a script that snaps a 1280×1024 jpeg of the scene once every 15 minutes. All that data is collated on a NAS and finally encoded into a viewable video using mencoder.
The construction has finally progressed to a point where “interesting” things are in sight, and I’m sharing the video in case you are also fascinated by construction sites. I’ve learned a few things, such as what those dimples are for on the internal pillars of tall buildings (they hold the scaffold in place as the building goes up), and that red thing at the top of the building is for pumping concrete flooring. Also, toward the end of the video you get an idea of how much the crane’s mast flexes during normal operation.
