CONSTRUCTION & TECHNOLOGY

At the weekend, Apple’s iPad launched in the US. We’ve read plenty about it already, but I’m sure you all know it’s the one everyone said looked like a giant iPod Touch - or iPhone despite the fact that it doesn’t make calls. The pyrotechnics at the opening display of Burj Khalifa would be a fair comparison.

Solar panels on the Burj Khalifa will heat 140,000 liters of water a day, the building’s developers have claimed. Ahmad Al Matrooshi, the managing director of developers Emaar, said that the world’s tallest building – which re-opened to tourists on Monday – would be a benchmark for urban developments seeking sustainability in the region.

As skyscrapers like the Burj Khalifa are built throughout the world to topple records and flex national and economic muscle, in the megacity of İstanbul such tall wonders are seen as necessities as its population and its finance sector grow to new heights.

Nevertheless, the folk at Emaar Properties in Dubai are doing their best to improve the Burj Khalifa's energy diet. Today, they announced that the building's hot-water system had gone solar.

It’s been just three months since the Burj Khalifa took the title of “world’s tallest building”, and already the shifting sands of Dubai have spawned a successor! A paragon of modern architecture, the iconic ICARUS tower is currently soaring towards the sky to become the next “World’s Tallest Building”.

Bob Doughty, Steve Ember: The Burj Khalifa now holds the title of tallest building. Skyscrapers represent modernity, power, and the expanding boundaries of human invention and new technology. Many experts consider the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois to be the first skyscraper. Built in eighteen eighty-five and later expanded, this tower was about fifty-five meters tall.

Just over halfway to its planned height, the Tokyo Sky Tree became the tallest structure in Japan on Monday when construction reached 338 meters (1,108 feet). When completed, it will stand 634 meters (2,080 feet). The Sky Tree on Monday surpassed the city’s 333-meter (1,092-foot) Tokyo Tower, a landmark and top tourist attraction since it opened in 1958.

The world’s tallest tower plunged into partial darkness for an hour yesterday to commemorate Earth Hour, the world’s biggest awareness event dedicated to fighting climate change. The Burj Khalifa joined landmarks such as the London Eye, the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids and the Forbidden City in Beijing in the campaign, which aimed at attracting a billion people this year.

Given our city's heritage as the birthplace of the skyscraper and home to many of the nation's tallest buildings, it's not surprising that the rest of the world continues to look to our architects for their super-sized projects. A report out of the Middle East claims Chicago architects Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill have been tapped to design a skyscraper that will dethrone the recently completed Burj Khalifa as the world's tallest building.

The event began in Sydney in 2007, when two million people switched off their lights. In 2009, participation swelled to hundreds of millions as 4,159 cities, towns and municipalities across 88 countries joined in. The Burj Khalifa, Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Grand Mosque, Emirates Palace, Burj Al Arab, Jumeirah Emirates Towers and other landmarks will join the cause tomorrow.