Posts Tagged Burj Khalifa
Burj Dubai – how it compares to the world’s other tall buildings
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on January 4, 2010
With swimming pools on floors 43 and 76, and plans for the world's highest mosque on the 158th floor, the $1bn 'superscraper' dwarfs the world's previous tallest building, the 508m Tower 101 in Taipei
Bailed out and broke, Dubai opens the world’s tallest building
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on January 4, 2010
Developer claims almost all the 1,000 apartments in the 818m high Burj Dubai have already been sold
The world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai, officially opens its doors tomorrow, leaving a colossal reminder of the hubris that
brought the emirate crashing in November.
The $4.1bn building is 818 metres (2,684ft) high, has more than 160 floors and will boast the world's highest observation deck. More than 50 lifts travelling at 25mph, will take two minutes to reach the top.
Developer Emaar Properties claims that almost all the 1,000 or so residential apartments in the tower have already been sold, in defiance of a property crash that saw prices drop by 50% last year. Laden with debt, Dubai was last month forced to accept a $10bn bailout from neighbouring Abu Dhabi.
During Dubai's boom years, developers built increasingly outlandish schemes including the "seven-star" hotel Burj Al Arab and a 22,500 sq m ski resort on the edge of the desert. Work on an archipelego of man-made islands in the shape of the world's land masses has been suspended due to the financial crisis.
The Burj is more than 300 metres higher than its nearest rival, the Taipei 101. The tallest tower in the United States, the Willis Tower in Chicago (formerly known as the Sears Tower), is 442m high. Rival developer Nakheel announced plans to trump the Burj with a tower reaching 1km, but with its parent Dubai World admitting last year that it was unable to repay its debts, the plans are likely to remain on the drawing board.
Video: Burj Dubai – the world’s tallest building
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on January 4, 2010
The Burj Dubai tower in UAE is due to open today, standing at 818m
Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building, set to open
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on January 4, 2010
See video of the Burj Dubai here
With batteries of fireworks and an invited crowd of 6,000 guests, the rulers of Dubai will tomorrow attempt to convince the world that their financial troubles have been overstated with a lavish inauguration of the world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai, rising almost a kilometre from the Arabian desert.
Setting aside fears that the emirate is on the brink of defaulting on its debt, Dubai's ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, is expected to make a triumphal ascent of the spire-shaped tower which rises a giddying 818m. With swimming pools on floors 43 and 76 and plans for the world's highest mosque on the 158th floor, the $1bn "superscraper" dwarfs both the world's previous tallest building, the 508m tall tower 101 in Taipei, and the 629m KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota, the tallest man-made structure. It is so high, the temperature is said to be 10C cooler at the zenith than at the base.
But with many investors in the building's 1,044 apartments already facing losses after property prices in Dubai slumped, the Burj's owners are struggling to present their architectural achievement as anything but a pyrrhic victory. The offices and most of the flats are still an estimated two months from completion and the emirate's neighbours in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, which provided Dubai with a £15bn bailout last year, are also understood to be unimpressed at the ostentation of the building.
The fountain outside cost a reported £133m and the 160 room hotel was designed by fashion designer Georgio Armani and boasts a nightclub, two restaurants and a spa. It is reported to have been built with enough glass to cover 17 football pitches and sufficient concrete to build a pavement from London to Naples. Meanwhile labourers on the project, including many immigrants from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, earned low wages. Skilled carpenters took home just £4.34 a day and labourers, £2.84.
But even by the standards of an emirate which has created miles more beach front by building vast islands from millions of tonnes of sand in the shapes of palms, the tower stands out as Dubai's most remarkable achievement yet.Around 12,000 people are expected to live and work in the tower which is part of a 500-acre development known as "downtown" Burj Dubai.
Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties, the state-owned developer said Burj Dubai was "another demonstration of Dubai's ability to achieve what few people thought possible".
"The tower is a global icon," he said. "It represents the determination and optimism of Dubai as a truly world city. It is a powerful symbol for the entire Arab world."