By Sharmila Dhal, Chief Reporter XPRESS www.gulfnews.com
Dubai: Not counting its vanity height, Burj Khalifa remains the world’s tallest building with a highest occupied floor of 585 metres, an international body on tall buildings has told XPRESS.
The clarification by the US-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) comes in the wake of the many interpretations of its recent report which found that the UAE’s tallest buildings have the maximum share of vanity height in the world.
Vanity height is the vertical distance from the building’s highest occupied floor to its architectural top. It does not include antennas, mechanical equipment, weather instruments etc, but takes into account fixed spires.
“Even without its vanity height, Burj Khalifa with a highest occupied floor of 585 metres would still be the tallest in the world if all the other buildings were also considered only by their highest occupied floor. If Burj Khalifa was the only building that had its vanity height removed, and all others kept theirs, the Makkah Clock Tower (601 metres) would be the tallest,” Daniel Safarik of CTBUH said via e-mail in response to XPRESS queries. More info
