Build Up

The other week my friend was telling me about the trip she had made to Dubai with her son. She was describing the places they had visited which was interesting as I’d visited there years ago when I worked in the United Arab Emirates. Then she mentioned this.

I should be able to get to the end of this article without feeling a bit unwell, I hope so. The thing is that one of the the places they had gone to visit was the Burj Khalifa which stands at a dizzying (not my word) 828 metres, or 2,717 feet tall and 163 floors high. It has two observatory decks. ‘At the Top’ at 452 metres, while ‘At the Top Sky’ is 555 metres in height, making it the highest observatory deck in the world.

Burj Khalifa, Dubai

When work began on the Burj Khalif in January 2004, many of the project’s details, including its height, remained shrouded in mystery. When it opened in January 2010, the team behind the Burj Khalifa revealed it had broken not just one but eight world records.

As well as surpassing the Taipei 101, formerly known as the Taipei World Finance Centre in Taiwan, as the tallest building in the world, it also holds the record for the world’s highest occupied floor, the world’s highest outdoor observatory deck and the longest elevator travel distance.

It was designed by Chicago-based architectural, urban planning and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM), who are also behind Manhattan House and Willis Tower.

American architect Adrian Smith was responsible for the vision and design which is innovative but also serves a practical purpose. His inspiration for the tower was the Hymenocallis flower Or Spider Lily – a regional desert flower. Like the Hymenocallis, the Burj Khalifa has an elegant and balanced design. As the tower increases in height, the ‘wings’ or ‘petals’ of the flower re-configure the shape of the building. This mechanism reduces wind and the elements’ impact on the building.

It is an example of a building that embraces the circular economy. The tower is covered in solar panels, which heat more than 140,000 litres of water every day. In turn, this water is used by residents and businesses daily. It also includes an irrigation system that collects condensation from the air conditioning, which provides 15 gallons of water a year, some of which are used on the building’s landscaping and plants.

Burj Khalifa apartments for sale or rent

The Burj Khalifa is home to over 900 residential units and can hold up to 10,000 people at any given time. As well as private residents, it houses businesses ranging from real estate to construction firms, Armani hotels, offices, and fine dining. With its proximity to The Dubai Mall, it attracts legions of tourists, about 17 million people per year, on average.

And two of them were my friend and her son. Now I can understand, just, having a stroll round the shops or trying to see a celeb but they went straight for it and as my friend said, went whizzing up in one of the lifts. One of the 57 lifts, produced by world leader Otis Elevator Company, which apparently are unlike those in any other skyscraper. They are one of the fastest elevators in the world. They zip passengers from the ground floor to the 124th-floor observation deck in just 60 seconds, reaching speeds of 10 metres per second (36 km/h or 22 mph).

And then they looked out of the windows. Madness.

view from the top of the Burj Khalifa

This is why I was a bit concerned about getting to the end of the article.

Vertigo

Mind led body
to the edge of the precipice.
They stared in desire
at the naked abyss.
If you love me, said mind,
take that step into silence.
If you love me, said body,
turn and exist.

                        Anne Stevenson

                        from ‘Granny Scarecrow' (2000)

Thanks for reading, Terry Q.