Burj Dubai - United Arab Emirates

Burj Dubai, at the center of a large-scale development, is the tallest building in the world and will be completed in 2009. The design combines cultural influences with cutting-edge technology to achieve high-performance. Its massing is manipulated in the vertical dimension to minimize the impact of wind on the tower's movement.

Designers purposely shaped the structural concrete Burj Dubai—“Y” shape in plan—to reduce the wind forces on the tower, as well as to keep the structure simple and foster constructability. The structural system can be described a “buttressed” core. Each wing, with its own high performance concrete core and perimeter columns, buttresses the others via a six-sided central core, or hexagonal hub. The result is a tower that is extremely stiff torsionally. SOM applied a rigorous geometry to the tower that aligned all the common central core and column elements to form a building.

The Burj Dubai also has one of the largest condensate recovery systems in the world, capturing up to fourteen Olympic size swimming pools of water per year, and one of the highest chilled water pressures ever used in a building to maximize efficiency. The tower is one of the first to utilize an active stack effect control in a super tall building to minimize energy loss.

Architect: Adrian Smith (SOM).

Construction : 2004-30.12.2008

Construction Company: Samsung E&C.

Cost : $8 billion compared to Petronas Tower 1.6 billion back in 1998.

Design company: Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM).

Elevators : 66 double deckers moving at the speed of 18m/s (40mph), making it the worlds fastest.

Facade: Ferroconcrete, steel-frame.

Floors : 110*Foundation: Concrete with 55 m(84 ft)tall piles attached into the ground.

Frame: Reflecting glazing to cool and save energy.

Gross Floor Space: 314,000 m² (3,378,137.6 sqft).

Height : 705 m (2,313 ft)*.

Observation deck: Indoor and outdoor at the 124 th floor, 34 floors abow the current leader Taipei 101.Project size: 190 hectares including artificial lake and downtown Dubai.