CONSTRUCTION & TECHNOLOGY

A plan to build the tallest building on earth — the $30 billion Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, western Saudi Arabia that will stand one mile high — has reportedly been approved. The Kingdom Tower, designed by American Adrian Smith, will be nearly double the height of the existing tallest building on the planet, the 2,717-foot-tall Burj Khalifa in Dubai, also designed by Smith.

The Kingdom Holding Company approved the plan to build the USD 30 billion Kingdom Tower in Jeddah the tallest building on Earth that will stand one mile high. The Kingdom Tower will be nearly double the height of the existing tallest building on the planet, the 2,717 foot Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It will be erected in Obhur just outside of the port city Jeddah.

Kingdom Tower would be twice the height of Burj Khalifa. The 1,600m-tall Kingdom Tower would dwarf the current tallest building in the world, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which is half its height. Lifts would take a reported 12 minutes to reach the top floor.

Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding Co has approved a plan to build the world's tallest building, the Saudi Gazette reported. The 275-floor Kingdom Tower will be 1.6km tall, twice the height of Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest skyscraper.

Construction of the Kingdom Tower in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah is expected to cost £12billion and will comprise 275 floors, making it twice as high as the current tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Hotels, offices, luxury apartments and a shopping centre will all feature in the giant structure, which is to be financed by the Saudi royal family-owned Kingdom Holding Company.

As part of the Education Without Borders conference's World Forum, held at the Armani Hotel in Dubai recently, Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) and Pearson, an international company with market-leading businesses in education, business information and consumer publishing, have signed an MoU to further boost science and technology in Pan Arab society.

Also, remember that the Burj Khalifa was completed less than 18 months ago. Hmm… building sizes doubling every 18 months? Doesn’t that sound like exponential growth to any of you? No no no… just kidding!

As far as building teetering skyscrapers in the Middle East goes, developer Kingdom Holding knew exactly who to turn to: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture—architect Adrian Smith had a hand in the design of Burj Khalifa.

With its central location, competitive rents and spacious homes, Business Bay is on its way to being the Destination of the Future. A residential cum commercial community, the area, which runs alongside Al Khail Road, has more and more people calling it home.

Arab construction projects have wowed the world in recent years, and there is a lot more to come. The opening of the Burj Khalifa in 2009 represented just the latest in a stream of projects over the course of the last 60 years that have shaped the Arab world.