NEWS

The Empire State Building. The Petronas Towers. Lincoln Cathedral. The list of those buildings that have been ranked as the tallest in the world gained a new number one on Monday this week with the official opening of the Burj Dubai, now renamed the Burj Khalifa in honour of the current president of the UAE. Five years and £2.5bn in the constructing, this 828-metre (2,717ft) skyscraper supersedes its predecessor – the Taipei 101 tower in Taiwan – by an astonishing 309 metres.

Middle Eastern market has maintained its customary lackluster tenor despite signals of revival in Global Steel Industry. With the wash out in 2009 it was avidly awaited that the tidings will take a turn for good with the dawn of 2010.

Dubai has a choice between remaining a commercial hub or evolving as a civil society by taking tangible action to alleviate the condition of labourers

Robert, 47, from France, said he had set his sights on his next project - the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, which was officially launched on Jan 4. “I will do many other climbs in between. I know the people of Dubai, they are interested (in seeing him scale the Burj Khalifa), but I do not know when they will allow me to do the attempt. "And also the problem in Dubai is the hot weather of up to 40 degrees (celcius), it doesn’t seem that I’ll be able to do it. Then, I’ll have to do it at another year, maybe in between January and April 2011,” he said.

You know the old saying about all work and no play? Well there’s now the chance for plenty of both for youngsters growing up in the UAE with the launch of KidZania in Dubai Mall. The high-tech 80,000-square foot plot is an interactive ‘city’ in which children of all ages can become anything from a surgeon, to a pilot - even a lowly journalist in the course of the day.

Armani told the newspaper that the hotel he designed in Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower, was "a special thing ... a sort of monument to what I have done in my life." The hotel spans 36 floors and includes five restaurants, Armani said.

WET, the creator of community experiences using nature's elements, has unveiled the world's largest water fountain at the newly opened Burj Dubai skyscraper. WET was commissioned by Emaar Properties to design a range of water features that would make the Burj Dubai property a standout, celebrating the multi-use tower as a 'must-see' destination.

Fino International managing partner Talal Saeed describes fitting out the Armani Hotel and the private offices of Emaar as "enlightening". Working on the interior fitout of the Burj Khalifa was both "enlightening" and "surprising," according to Talal Saeed, managing partner of Fino International. The four year old, Dubai-based interiors specialist was appointed to work on three separate areas of the world's tallest building.

On Jan. 4, the new decade's first day of business, grand openings of two extraordinary real estate projects were widely reported: the $8.5 billion, 18.5 million square-foot City Center complex in Las Vegas; and the $1.5 billion Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world's tallest skyscraper, standing more than a half-mile high on the east coast of the Arabian peninsula. Media commentators noted that both celebrations seemed like punctuation marks signaling the end of a decade of real estate investment excess and architectural extravagance.

The date has been announced for the opening of the world’s first Armani Hotel in Dubai. The launch hotel from the fashion designer will finally open on March 18 within the world’s tallest building, which was recently completed in the Emirate and has now been officially named Burj Khalifa.