CONSTRUCTION & TECHNOLOGY

You can't help feeling a bit like Batman while driving into an apparently secret, subterranean car tunnel coursing under the Downtown Burj Khalifa area.

The official opening of the 828-metre-high Burj Khalifa has not marked the end of the era of tall buildings. This is according to the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), which has released its list of projects anticipated to be completed in 2010.

Delta Sound has provided sound syncronisation and fireworks for the opening of Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made structure in the world. In a ceremony witnessed by thousands of Dubai residents and millions via television, Delta Sound produced a light and sound display to mark the $1.5bn tower's official opening earlier this month.

It started as a design concept. When Montreal-based gsmprjct was hired to conceive and construct the multimedia elements for the viewing platform of the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, it seized on the idea of installing state-of-the-art LCD touchscreen telescopes. But there was a hitch: No such device existed.

Workers have installed the first road signs bearing the new name of the world’s tallest tower, Burj Khalifa. Two signs, one on Sheikh Zayed Road and the other between Al Wasl Road and the Defence Interchange, were installed overnight on Saturday, apparently the first to point the way to Burj Khalifa after its name was changed from Burj Dubai at its January 4 inauguration.

Developed by Kobi Karp, a Miami based architectural and interior design firm, the “Miapolis” is a 975-meter high tower planned for Watson Island that if constructed will surpass Dubai’s Burj Khalifa by 183 meters. Accommodating an amusement park, observatory, restaurants, 1.96 million sq ft of shops, over 1000 apartments, 1 million sq ft office space and a 792-room hotel, the 160-story superscraper will create 35,000 permanent jobs and generate $39 million to the City and $2.5 billion to the local economy annually.

By Jethu Abraham (PEOPLE)  www.khaleejtimes.com ulitzer- winning architecture critic Paul 
Goldberger finds the Burj more than just a tall tale Acclaimed architecture critic and writer Paul Goldberger couldn’t be visiting Dubai...

The Burj Khalifa, currently the tallest tower in the world, officially opened in Dubai on Jan. 4 amid an impressive pyrotechnics display that highlighted the tower's 2716.5-feet of aluminum and steel, and its 26,000 hand-cut glass panels. The Burj Khalifa blows away the next-nearest skyscraper, which is China's 1670-foot Taipei 101, and the building has even surpassed ultra-tall, ground-cable-supported radio antennas.

The German bathroom fittings and shower manufacturer supplied more than 5000 fittings from its Axor Starck luxury collection for the Burj Khalifa. The installation started in 2008 and was finished in June 2009. “Hansgrohe was given a great deal of credit for not pulling out of the market in the face of the economic crisis, unlike other companies,” said Siegfried Gänßlen, chairman of the management board of Hansgrohe AG.

Time Out Dubai’s commemorative Burj Khalifa edition is on sale now. To mark the occasion of the opening of the world’s tallest building.Time Out has created the world’s tallest magazine.