Burj Khalifa or "Khalifa Tower" (Arabic: برج خليفة) is a very tall skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and is the world's tallest building ever built, at 828m (2,717ft). Before the building opened, it was called Burj Dubai. The building is 160 stories high. Construction of the tower was started in 2004. The building was officially opened on 4 January 2010.[1][2] It is the tallest structure made by humans in the world. The building is more than 300 metres (980 ft) taller than Taipei 101. Taipei 101 was the tallest building until 2010 before Burj Khalifa was built. But the Burj Khalifa may not hold this record for very long because an even taller building called the Jeddah Tower is being built in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and it will be taller than 1 kilometer.
Adrian Smith designed the tower.[3] He worked with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) until 2006.[4] It was built by Samsung Engineering & Construction, Besix, and Arabtec.[5] The tower cost US $1.5 billion to build.[6] The building is part of a 2 km building project on Sheikh Zayed Road, Downtown Burj Khalifa. It is near Dubai's main business district.
The building and planning[change | change source]
Burj Khalifa compared to some other tall structures.
The main contractor was Samsung C&T of South Korea. They also built the Taipei 101 and Petronas Twin Towers.[7] Other contractors who helped with the building included Belgian group Besix and Arabtec from the UAE. The Turner Construction Company was chosen as the construction project manager.[8]
The design architect, Adrian Smith, did not like the first design of the upper part of the building. He added 27 new floors and an aluminium spire to the top of the plans. The design of Burj Khalifa based on those used in Islamic architecture. Burj Khalifa has been said to have had several other planned height increases since it was first built. This has not been proven to be true yet. The TV/radio communications mast was added to the tower's plans in 2007. This was after building work had begun in 2006. There are pressurized, air-conditioned refuge floors about every 35 floors. These were put into the tower in case of an emergency or fire.[9]
The unusual design and engineering problems of building Burj Khalifa have been shown in many television documentaries. These include the Big, Bigger, Biggest series on the National Geographic and Five channels, and the Mega Builders series on the Discovery Channel.
The most important building materiel of Burj Khalifa is reinforced concrete. A special concrete was needed because of the high pressures of the building's weight and the hot local climate of Persian Gulf temperatures that can reach 50 °C (122 °F). Any major cracks could have caused a large amount of damage to the building.
The foundation of the building is 15 metres (49 ft) deep. It was built with 192 columns being put into the ground. Each column was 1.5m in diameter and 43m long.[10] 55,000 tonnes of steel rebar was used in the construction of the tower. It took 22 million man-hours to build.[3] A high density, low permeability concrete was used in the foundations of Burj Khalifa. A cathodic protection system is used to lessen any bad effects from corrosive chemicals in local ground water.
The Dubai Fountain[change | change source]
