L-620) Tallest Tower in the world, Dubai Tower, 160 story, 828 m height
Burj Dubai became the world's tallest
high-rise building on July 24, 2007, and the world's tallest self-supporting
structure on September 12, 2007.
Burj Dubai is the tallest man-made
structure in the world, surpassing the KVLY-TV Tower in North Dakota as well as
Warszawa Radio Mast, the previous tallest structure ever built.
This is the first world's tallest building
since prehistoric times to include residential space.
The Burj Dubai had its name officially changed
to Burj Khalifa during its grand opening in honor of the president of the
U.A.E. H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan.
"Burj" is Arabic for
"Tower."
Although the building's shape resembles the
bundled tube concept of the Willis Tower, it is structurally very different and
is technically not a tube structure.
The building was rotated 120 degrees to so
that it would be least likely to be buffetted by desert windstorms. The tower's
setbacks were also reoriented from counterclockwise to clockwise.
The building sits on a concrete and steel
podium with 192 piles descending to a depth of more than 50 metres (164 feet).
A total of 45,000 cubic meters of concrete
are used in the foundations with a weight in excess of 110,000 tonnes.
Over 330,000 cubic meters of concrete and
31,400 metric tons of steel rebar was used at the completion of the tower.
The exterior cladding is of reflective
glazing with aluminium and textured stainless steel spandrel panels with
vertical tubular fins of stainless steel.
The cladding system is designed to
withstand Dubai's extreme summer temperatures.
The condensation water collected from the
air conditioning system equals to 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools per year and
in turn, used for landscaping.
Burj Dubai features sky lobbies on levels
43, 76 and 123. These spaces offer fitness and spa facilities. The lobbies on
levels 43 and 76 each have a swimming pool and a recreational room for
receptions and other gatherings.
The highest residential floor will be level
109.
An observation deck will occupy the 124th
floor. A private club is on the 125th floor.
Engineers working on the design considered
installing triple-decker elevators, which would have been the first in the
world, but in the end chose to use double-decker elevators.
The maximum elevator speed is 600 m/min.
The design by Skidmore Owings & Merrill
replaces a plan to reuse the design for Grollo Tower, which was proposed in
Melbourne a few years earlier.
Designed by Adrian D. Smith, FAIA, RIBA
design partner at Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP.
The triple-lobed footprint of the building
is based on an abstracted desert flower native to the region.
A subtle reference to the onion domes of
Islamic architecture can be found in the building's silhouette when looking up
at the lobes from near the base.
The tower is situated on a man-made lake
which is designed to wrap around the tower and provide dramatic views of it.
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