Burj Khalifa: If you enjoy looking at ultra-tall structures aka skyscrapers like Makkah Royal Clock Tower, Lotte World Tower, Eiffel tower then you can not miss the world’s tallest structure and the building known as Burj Khalifa with an estimated height of 829.8 m. This massive building not only broke the record of being the tallest structure in the world but also broke several mind-blowing records such as ‘Building with most floors’(it has 163 floors ),’ ‘World’s longest travel distance elevators ‘(504 m),‘ World’s highest new year display of fireworks’, etc.

The Burj Khalifa’s construction began in 2004, with the exterior finished five years later in 2009. The core construction is reinforced concrete, and some of the structural steel for the building came from the old East German parliament, the Palace of the Republic in East Berlin. The structure was completed in 2010 as part of a new development known as Downtown Dubai.

It was intended to be the focal point of a large-scale, mixed-use complex. The decision to create the skyscraper was based on the government’s aim to diversify the economy away from an oil-dependent one and to help Dubai acquire international reputation. The structure is named after Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the United Arab Emirates; Abu Dhabi and the UAE government provided Dubai money to cover its debts. The structure shattered multiple height records, including the title of world’s tallest skyscraper.

The Burj Khalifa was designed by a team led by Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the same firm that designed the Sears Tower in Chicago, the previous world’s tallest structure. The project’s design was overseen by NORR Group Consultants International Limited, with Hyder Consulting serving as the project’s supervising engineer.

The design is inspired by regional Islamic architecture, such as the Great Mosque of Samarra. The tripartite Y-shaped floor geometry is intended to maximise residential and hotel space. The building’s height is supported by a buttressed central core and wings. Despite being inspired by Tower Palace III, the central core of the Burj Khalifa includes all vertical mobility, with the exception of egress stairs within each of the wings. The building also has a cladding system that is meant to endure the scorching summer temperatures in Dubai. It has 57 elevators and 8 escalators in total.

At some point throughout the design and engineering process, the original Emaar developers ran into financial difficulties and needed extra money and economic financing. Sheikh Khalifa, the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, provided financial assistance and finance, prompting the name change to “Burj Khalifa.” The notion of profit gained from high density structures and malls built around the landmark has proven to be effective. The project’s surrounding malls, hotels, and apartments in Downtown Dubai produced the greatest cash, while the Burj Khalifa alone made little or no profit.

The Burj Khalifa has garnered mostly good reviews from critics, and the structure has won several honours. There were, however, frequent concerns about migrant labourers from South Asia, who were the dominant construction labour force. These concentrated on poor pay and the practise of seizing passports until duties were paid in full. Suicides by expatriate labourers working at the facility were reported on a regular basis in 2011.

On 28 September 2010 Burj Khalifa won the award for the best project of the year at the Middle East Architect Awards 2010. Now let’s take a deep dive into the amazing facts of Burj khalifa :

The Burj Khalifa Is 6th Time Taller Than the Great Pyramide of Giza

Burj Khalifa

pyramid of Giza was the tallest man-made structure in the world for about 3,800 years and many other buildings broke the record but after 2010 Burj Khalifa is the titleholder till date with a total height of (2,722 ft), though the real height was kept secret before the inauguration (2010) and on March 28, 2011, Alain Robert who is also known as ‘human spiderman’ climbed the Burj Khalifa within 6 hours and scaled the outside of it. Its spire can be seen 95km (60 miles) away.

It Takes More Than 3 Months to Clean the Windows of Burj Khalifa

cleaning

so you think only your windows take time to be cleaned? listen from the workers who get the job to clean 26000 windows which takes more than 3 months and when the team finishes cleaning it they have to start all over again.

Burj Khalifa is cleaned with several methods suggested by Australian company Cox Gamma, from the ground level up to 73 levels the building lacks terraces or roof area so the company came up with an amazing solution, here a panel of glass rotates and the maintenance team come nearer to all the windows and makes the job bit easy, here the cradle is attached to these maintenance units which either drops straight down or extends outwards to an impressive distance, it is observed that from level 73 to level 168 many terraces are accessible, so they use traditional davits to get access of these windows

Burj Khalifa Bagged Several Awards

Burj Khalifa Bagged Several Awards

The awards are listed below :

2012 • Structural Engineers Association of Illinois

Award of Merit: World Voices Sculpture, Burj Khalifa Lobby

2011 • AIA – Chicago Chapter • Interior Architecture Award: Certificate of Merit

2011 • AIA – Chicago Chapter • Distinguished Building Award: Citation of Merit

2011 • AIA – Chicago Chapter • Interior Architecture Award: Special Recognition

2011 • American Society of Interior Designers – Illinois Chapter • Design Excellence Award: Special Function Room, First Place

2011 • ASHRAE – Illinois Chapter • Excellence in Engineering

The Opening of the Burj Khalifa Was Watched Live by Over 2 Billion People Worldwide

bidding-for-burjs-external-lights

There is no doubt that it got the attention of people from the very beginning and over 6000 people’s eye-witnessed the grand opening and 400 local, regional and international media was there at the Burj khalifa to cover its opening. To welcome 2011 mind-blowing fireworks were seen from the tallest tower around midnight, A fabulous sound and light show choreographed by the Dubai fountain set the stage for the firework display.

The place was so crowded they had to close the connecting bridge between Dubai Mall and Souq Al Bahar in the fear that it might collapse due to the weight of the crowd.

It Took Almost 6 Years to Build Burj Khalifa From Scratch

construction

The construction started from 6th January 2004, it was that type of construction that we call next to impossible so to make it possible some extra efforts were needed. Each day more than 10k workers had to give their 100% to build the massive tower in such a short time. You would be surprised that it almost took 22 million man-hours to complete it.

the exterior of the structure was completed on 1st October 2009 and it was officially opened on 4th Jan.

Burj Khalifa Owns 900 Apartments

Burj Khalifa

Who would not want to have an apartment in the tallest tower in the world?  With 900 residences available to buy including studios, one, two, three, and four-bedroom suites, the apartments at Burj Khalifa Tower offers luxury living life but at what cost? for a typical 2 bedroom apartment can cost you around 200000 AED per year, it not only includes the luxury living life but also provides Jacuzzis, a library, a cigar club, a gourmet market, and a meeting place for the residents. Outside, a lush park with tennis courts frames these amazing structures.

Dubai Fountain Outside Burj Khalifa

dubai fountain

Being the tallest building in Dubai, the Burj Khalifa offers the best views of the Dubai skyline and beyond from its observation deck, the view from the Burj Khalifa is outstanding, and what makes the view picture-perfect ? of course the Dubai Fountain! it costs around 800 million ADE  designed by WET Enterprise.

It is the world’s largest choreographed fountain and can be seen changing colors with almost  6000 lights and 50 colored projectors. The water show can be heard with Arabic music and on various occasions(like New Year’s eve) the music changes accordingly .it is  900 ft long and shoots water  500 ft into the air.

Ramadan at Burj Khalifa

ramadan

You would be surprised to know the fact that the sun can still be seen after the sunset from the 80th floor. So there are some certain rules for people living above the 80th floor such as people living above the 80th floor should wait 2 additional minutes to break their Ramadan fast, and those living above the 150th floor, 3 minutes.

Materials Used to Build Burj Khalifa

construction

To construct Burj Khalifa 330000(  m3 of concrete and 39000 tons of steel rebar were used, Over 45,000 m3 (58,900 cu yd) of concrete, weighing more than 110,000 tons were used to construct the concrete and steel foundation, which features 192 piles buried more than 50 m (164 ft) deep. This massive project involved more than 380 skilled engineer minds.

Elevators at Burj Khalifa

elevators

Burj Khalifa owns the longest single-running elevator which covers 140 floors and it takes less than 1 minute to reach the observation deck from the ground floor at a speed of 22 mph.

ticket price for ‘At The Top Deck’ is 149 ADE for adults and 114 ADE for the child.