CONSTRUCTION & TECHNOLOGY

The world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa, is scheduled to unlock its doors in early 2010 as the centrepiece of the Downtown Burj Khalifa area. This will include the world's first Armani Hotel, designed, featuring 160 guestrooms and suites, an Armani Spa, a private members' club, two gourmet restaurants and a nightclub. It will also boast 144 exquisite Armani Residences all furnished in the designer's ‘homes' brand, Armani Casa.

We are told the world’s newest and tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, will hold 25,000 people at any one time — or three people per square metre of planet that it covers. This makes it, in at least one respect, a good thing. The more intensely human beings use the space they take up, the more space they can hand back to Mother Nature.

“I don’t think I will ever forget the moment we were told that we’d won the contract to build the tallest tower in the world,” reminisces Philippe Dessoy, general manager of Besix. “It was a dream come true; it was the best day of our lives I think. And it was with pure inspiration and pride that we began our work on the Burj.” But despite the elation over the jaw-dropping paycheck, building the world’s tallest tower wasn’t as easy as it might have seemed and it did come with troubles of its own.

When Depa won the contract to fit out a major portion of the interiors of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper, in 2006, the Dubai-based firm was under no illusion that the multimillion-dollar project would be one of its most challenging yet. Depa, the world’s largest interior fitout contractor, regularly works on large scale projects such as luxury hotels, airports, cruise ships, malls and offices.

Vision is a word you hear a lot in the GCC. But just imagine if you will, sitting down in a meeting and deciding to construct the world's tallest building in your city. Not one that is going to be the tallest by a few dozen metres, and relinquish its title to another tower, in another city, within a few years, but the tallest by a massive margin.

Meet the man who designed the building that has smashed all world records. The chief architect for the Burj Dubai, Adrian Smith, speaks to David Light about his achievement. Adrian Smith, creator of the Burj Dubai and other iconic structures worldwide, has been a practising architect for over 40 years.

The world’s tallest building has a green and engaging footprint. Designed by SWA Group, one of the world’s leading landscape architecture, planning and urban design firms, the 11-hectare green oasis including plazas, pools and promenades creates a beautiful and functional framework to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Some very smart people are saying some spectacularly misinformed things about the Burj Khalifa, the new world’s tallest building in Dubai. Among the most ill-advised of the assertions: Frank Lloyd Wright’s proposed Mile-High Illinois skyscraper had a major influence on the design.

Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, 828 meters, was inaugurated on Jan 4, 2010. The tower accomplished a world record for the highest installation of aluminium and glass façade, at a height of 512 meters.

The Burj Khalifa, formerly known as the Burj Dubai, was unveiled January 4 and now stands as the world’s tallest building at 2,716.5 feet. Developed by Emaar Properties, glass was a dominant element in the design and construction of the tower.