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Burj Khalifa

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Coordinates: 25°11′50.0″N 055°16′26.6″E / 25.197222°N 55.274056°E / 25.197222; 55.274056
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Template:Building under construction

Burj Dubai
File:Burj Dubai.jpg
Map
General information
Estimated completion30 December 2008 [2]
OpeningSeptember 2009 (est.)
Height
Antenna spire~Template:M to ft (estimate)
Roof~Template:M to ft
Top floor~Template:M to ft (estimate)
Technical details
Floor count162 (estimate)
Floor area344,000 m2 (3,702,785 sq ft)
Design and construction
Architect(s)United States Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
DeveloperUnited Arab Emirates Emaar

The Burj Dubai (Arabic: برج دبي "Dubai Tower") is a supertall skyscraper currently under construction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It currently is the tallest free standing structure according to its developers.[3] When it is completed in late 2008, it is predicted to be the tallest man-made structure in the world, as well as the tallest building by any measure. Scheduled for occupancy in September 2009, the building is part of a 2 km2 (0.8 sq mi) development called 'Downtown Dubai' and is located at the "First Interchange" (aka "Defense Roundabout") along Sheikh Zayed Road at Doha Street. The building is being built by a South Korean Company, Samsung, and was designed by Adrian Smith before he left Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP (SOM) of Chicago to start his own independent practice, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture in October 2006.[4] SOM continues to lead the architectural, structural engineering and mechanical engineering of the Burj Dubai. The total budget for the Burj Dubai project is about $4.1 billion US dollars and for the entire new 'Downtown Dubai', $20 billion US Dollars.

Height

Current height and time line of events

As of September 13 2007, various news reports indicated the Burj Dubai's height to be Template:M to ft, with 150 completed stories.[5]

The Burj Dubai's last two milestones will be to pass the height of the KVLY-TV Mast in North Dakota, United States to become the world's tallest structure (628.8 m or 2,063 ft) and to pass the Warsaw Radio Mast in Gąbin, Poland (646.4 m or 2,121 ft until its collapse in 1991) to become the world's tallest structure of any type ever built.

Current records


Projected height

Projected height of the completed Burj Dubai, compared to the height of some other well known tall buildings.

The projected final height of the Burj Dubai is officially being kept a secret due to competition from other buildings under construction or proposed; however, figures released by a contractor on the project have suggested a height of around Template:M to ft.[11] Based on this height, the total number of habitable floors is expected to be around 160. However, when pressed for a more precise figure, the project manager merely repeated that he was able only to guarantee that the final height would be higher than Template:M to ft, and it would be the world's tallest free-standing structure when completed. In fact, at more than Template:M to ft the Burj Dubai would be the tallest land-based structure to have ever been built.

A recent article from "Builder Online" posted on the web concerning the appointment of Richard Rodrigues to the positions of CEO of Emaar Dubai,[12] seems to paraphrase Larry Webb, the CEO of John Laing Homes, the parent company of Emaar Dubai, as stating indirectly that the final number of floors will be 170. The paragraph is as follows:

""He's going to do a great job in Dubai," adds Webb, pointing out that as part of his duties, Rodriguez will now be in charge of completing the 170-story Burj Dubai, billed as the world's tallest building."

History of height increases

Though unconfirmed, Burj Dubai has been rumored to have undergone several height increases since its inception. Originally proposed as a virtual clone of the Template:M to ft Grollo Tower proposal for Melbourne, the tower was redesigned with an original design by Skidmore Owings and Merrill (SOM) seen above and discussed below. This design should put it at approximately Template:M to ft. Contradictory information abounds regarding the official height of the building, which is to be expected, considering the building seeks to acquire the designation as the world's tallest structure upon completion in 2009. One website[13] mentions a rumored final height of Template:M to ft in a September 28, 2006 posting, but this is contradicted by a September 20, 2006 article listing a height over Template:M to ft.[14]

The design architect, Adrian Smith, felt that the upper-most section of the building did not culminate elegantly, so he sought and received approval to increase it to the currently planned height. It has been explicitly stated that this change did not include any added floors,[15], which is fitting with Smith's attempts to make the crown more slender. However, the top of the tower, from the 156th floor onward or from Template:M to ft to the top, will be a steel frame structure, unlike the lower portion's reinforced concrete. The developer, Emaar, has stated this steel section may be extended to beat any other tower to the title of tallest; however, once the tower is complete the height cannot be changed.

Competition with other projects

Several other mega-projects in various states of planning and construction may vie for the title of "tallest structure". One of Burj Dubai's potential competitors is a proposed tower only 50 km (31 mi) from the Burj Dubai site. Al Burj ("The Tower"), is being developed by Nakheel Properties who are also keeping the project's final height tightly under wraps. Meed.com recently reported that this tower's projected height would be around Template:M to ft with at least 200 floors. However, luckily for the Burj Dubai's owners, the Al Burj project has been scaled back and is likely to not be a competitor for the world's tallest building.

Another proposed supertall skyscraper, the Murjan Tower in Manama, Bahrain is planned to be Template:M to ft tall with 200 floors. The Murjan Tower is being designed by Danish firm Henning Larsens Tegnestue A/S.

Also potentially competing with the Burj Dubai is the proposed Template:M to ft Mubarak al-Kabir Tower to be erected in Kuwait as part of a massive development project called Madinat al-Hareer ("City of Silk") that also includes an Olympic stadium, residences, hotels, and retail facilities. However, the project may take 25 years to complete.[16]

Architecture and design

The tower is being constructed by a South Korean company, Samsung Engineering & Construction [17] which built Petronas Twin Towers and the Taipei 101. The tower is designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, who also designed the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Freedom Tower in New York City, among numerous other famous high-rises. The building resembles the bundled tube form of the Sears Tower, but is not a tube structure. The design of the Burj Dubai is reminiscent of the Frank Lloyd Wright vision for The Illinois, a mile high skyscraper designed for Chicago, Illinois. The Burj Dubai is expected to rise to 150% of the height of the Sears Tower. Emaar has also engaged GHD [18] , an international multidisciplinary consulting firm, to assist with the design, review and assessment involved in the construction process.

Supertall cross-section comparisons

The design of Burj Dubai is ostensibly derived from the patterning systems embodied in Islamic architecture, with the triple-lobed footprint of the building based on an abstracted version of the desert flower hymenocallis native to the region. The tower is composed of three elements arranged around a central core. As the tower rises from the flat desert base, setbacks occur at each element in an upward spiraling pattern, decreasing the cross section of the tower as it reaches toward the sky. At the top, the central core emerges and is sculpted to form a finishing spire. A Y-shaped floor plan maximizes views of the Persian Gulf. Viewed from above or from the base, the form also evokes the onion domes of Islamic architecture.

The exterior cladding of the Burj Dubai will consist of reflective glazing with aluminum and textured stainless steel spandrel panels with vertical tubular fins of stainless steel. The cladding system is designed to withstand Dubai's extreme summer temperatures.

The interior will be decorated by Giorgio Armani. An Armani Hotel (the first of its kind) will occupy the lower 37 floors. Floors 45 through 108 will have 700 private apartments on 64 floors (which, according to the developer, sold out within eight hours of going on sale). Corporate offices and suites will fill most of the remaining floors, except for a 123rd floor lobby and 124th floor indoor/outdoor observation deck. The spire will also hold communications equipment. An outdoor zero-entry swimming pool will be located on the 78th floor of the tower.

It will also feature the world's fastest elevator, rising and descending at 18 m:s[convert: unknown unit].[19] The world's current fastest elevator (in the Taipei 101 office tower in Taipei) travels at 16.83 m:s[convert: unknown unit]. Engineers had considered installing the world's first triple-decker elevators, but the final design calls for double-decker elevators.[20] A total of 56 elevators will be installed that can carry 42 people at a time. [21]

Engineers rotated the building 120 degrees from its original layout to reduce stress from prevailing winds. Over 45,000 cubic metres (59,000 cubic yards) of concrete, weighing more than 110,000 tonnes (120,000 short tons) were used to construct the concrete and steel foundation, which features 192 piles buried more than Template:M to ft deep.[20]

Purpose

The Burj Dubai has been designed to be the centerpiece of a large-scale, mixed-use development that will include 30,000 homes, nine hotels such as the Burj Dubai Lake Hotel & Serviced Apartments, 0.03 km2 (0.01 sq mi) of parkland, at least 19 residential towers, the Dubai Mall, and the 0.12 km2 (0.05 sq mi) man-made Burj Dubai Lake. The Burj Dubai Tower will cost US$ 800 million to build and the entire, complete 2 km2 (0.77 sq mi) development will cost around US$ 20 billion.

The silvery glass-sheathed concrete building will restore the title of Earth's tallest structure to the Middle East — a title not held by the region since Lincoln Cathedral upset the four millennial reign of Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza in 1311 AD.

The decision to build Burj Dubai is reportedly based on the government's decision to diversify from a trade-based economy to one that is service- and tourism-oriented. Currently, Dubai has a population of 1.5 million crowded into less than 10% of the city's 4,114 km2 (1,588 sq mi) of land, with desert covering the rest.[22] According to officials, it is necessary for projects like Burj Dubai to be built in the city to garner more international recognition, and hence investment. "He [Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum] wanted to put Dubai on the map with something really sensational," said Jacqui Josephson, a tourism and VIP delegations executive at Nakheel Properties.[23]

Construction

The Burj Dubai is made from reinforced concrete. As construction of the tower progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to vertically pump the thousands of litres of concrete that are required. The previous record for pumping concrete on any project, was set during the extension of the Riva del Garda Hydroelectric Power Plant in Italy in 1994, when concrete was pumped to a height of Template:M to ft. The Burj Dubai now holds this record as of August 19th as it has a height of Template:M to ft, to hold the record for concrete pumping on any project.[citation needed]

Special mixes of concrete are made to withstand the extreme pressures of the massive weight of the tower, each batch of concrete is tested and checked to see whether it can withstand certain pressures, the head of Concrete Quality Checking on the Burj Dubai project is Alam Feroze, who is in charge of concrete on the whole project.

As the consistency of the concrete on the project is essential, it was difficult to create a concreter which could withstand the thousands of tonnes bearing down on it, but also to withstand Gulf temperatures which can reach 50 degrees Celsius. To combat this problem shaved ice is added to the mixture to keep the concrete mixture cool, to stop the concrete setting too quick and cracking.

Concrete is not poured during the day, instead it is poured at night when it is cooler, and the humidity is high, so it dries evenly throughout, and minimizes cracking, which would put the whole project in jeopardy.


Labour controversy

Further information: [[:Human rights in the United Arab Emirates]]

Burj Dubai is being built primarily by immigrant engineers and workers from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, China and the Philippines[24]. Press reports indicate that skilled carpenters at the site earn US$7.60 (£4.34)/day, and laborers earn US$4.00 (£2.84).[24][25] Unions were forbidden in the United Arab Emirates up until recently, when the government announced steps to allow construction unions.[26] On March 21, 2006, workers upset over low wages and poor working conditions rioted, damaging cars, offices, computers, and construction equipment. A Dubai Interior Ministry official said the rioters caused approximately US$1m (£488k) in damage. Most workers returned the following day but refused to work. Workers building a new terminal at Dubai International Airport also joined that day's strike action.


See also

References

  1. ^ "Burj Dubai becomes the world tallest building".
  2. ^ "Burj Dubai Skyscraper (Photos)". Retrieved 2007-07-08.
  3. ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070913/wl_mideast_afp/uaedubaiconstructiontower
  4. ^ "Architect Magazine: Adrian Smith Leaves SOM, Longtime Skidmore partner bucks retirement to start new firm".
  5. ^ Burj Dubai Becomes the World's Tallest Free-Standing Structure at Bloomberg L.P.
  6. ^ Burj Dubai:Unimix sets record for concrete pumping
  7. ^ Putzmeister AG. Company facts - History
  8. ^ Burj Dubai official site
  9. ^ "Burj Dubai Height Overtakes Taipei 101". skyscrapernews.com. Retrieved 2007-07-22.
  10. ^ "CN Tower dethroned by Dubai building". The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. September 12, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  11. ^ Project information, doka- The Formwork Experts, retrieved 2006-05-04
  12. ^ Richard Rodrigues to be CEO of Emaar Dubai, Laing's Ops Man To Head Emaar Dubai, retrieved 2007-08-25
  13. ^ burjdubaiskyscraper.com
  14. ^ "Builder: Dubai High-Rise World's Tallest". AP News. Retrieved 2007-07-22. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  15. ^ Template:PDFlink, Cityscape, 2005-09-18, retrieved 2006-05-05
  16. ^ "Architects plan kilometre-high skyscraper", by Will Knight, NewScientist.com, December 9, 2005, retrieved 2006-03-25
  17. ^ "Samsung E&C Projects".
  18. ^ "GHD Projects".
  19. ^ Burj Dubai will have world's highest elevator installation, by Moushumi Das Chaudhry, BurjDubaiSkyscraper, 2006-03-12, retrieved 2006-03-25
  20. ^ a b "Burj Dubai, Dubai, at emporis.com". Retrieved 2007-05-23.
  21. ^ Burj Dubai reaches a record high. EMAAR, 2007-07-21, retrieved 2007-07-23
  22. ^ Dubai - Global Talent Magnet, by John Hagel, Edge Perspectives, December 11, 2005, retrieved April 10, 2006
  23. ^ "In Dubai, the Sky's No Limit", by Megan K. Stack, Los Angeles Times, 2005-10-13, retrieved 2006-03-26
  24. ^ a b "Workers Riot at Site of Dubai Skyscraper", Jim Krane, breitbart.com, 2006-03-22, retrieved March 24, 2006
  25. ^ Riot by migrant workers halts construction of Dubai skyscraper, by Brian Whitaker and agencies, The Guardian, 2006-03-23, retrieved 2006-03-25
  26. ^ "UAE to allow construction unions", BBC News, 2006-03-30, retrieved 2006-04-20
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Burj Khalifa.
Preceded by World's tallest structure
(under construction)
2008- 		Succeeded by
Preceded by World's tallest free-standing structure
(under construction)
2007- 		Succeeded by
Preceded by World's tallest building
(under construction)
2007- 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Building with the most floors
(under construction)
2007- 		Succeeded by

25°11′50.0″N 055°16′26.6″E / 25.197222°N 55.274056°E / 25.197222; 55.274056

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