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.
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 will be situated on a man-made lake which is designed to wrap around the tower and to provide dramatic views of it. |
Engineers working on the design considered installing triple-decker elevators, which would have been the first in the world. The realized building will use double-decker elevators. |
The top of the building will contain a public observation deck and a private club above that. |
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 design by Skidmore Owings & Merrill replaces a plan to reuse the design for Grollo Tower, which was proposed in Melbourne a few years earlier. |
"Burj" is Arabic for "Tower". |
The highest residential floor will be level 109. |
An observation deck will occupy the 124th floor. |
The building was rotated 120 degrees to allow for less stress from the prevailing winds. |
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 metres of concrete are used in the foundations with a weight in excess of 110,000 tonnes. |
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. |
This is the first world's tallest building since prehistoric times to include residential space. |
The official height has not been released, and remains secret. The total height of 808/818 meters is subject to change. Courtesy-- |