Burj Khalifa- Dubai’s 1st large & Mixed Use Development

Whenever any thought comes our in mind about high rise buildings, Dubai is one of the most popular city which is very well known for high rise buildings and structure.

Burj Khalifa, also known as Dubai tower is the tallest building of the world situated in Dubai with the height of 828 m (2717 ft). It is used of many purposes like residential, hotel, office, club and more. Therefor, it is known as Dubai’s 1st large scale and mixed use development.

So, let’s find out more information about this amazing structure in this blog.

In this blog, You will find out –

1. General introduction of Burj Khalifa
2. Basic concept of this skyscraper
3. Building Features
4. Architectural specification
5. Structural specification
6. Materialistic specification
7. Services of Burj Khalifa
8. Problem facing while construction
9. Awards & Records
10. Interesting facts
11. Visiting Burj Khalifa
12. Conclusion
13. FAQ

General Introduction of Burj Khalifa

The former name of this building is Burj Dubai, inaugurated in 2010 and situated in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is the tallest building of the world which construction started on 6^th January 2004 and completed on 1^st October 2009.

It is owned by Emaar properties which is a Dubai based real estate company and cost of the complete project is about $1.5 billion.

The building is designed by architect Adrian Smith who worked in the company Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Bill Baker who is the structural engineer of this structure. Main contractor company of this structure is Samsung C&T Corporation (construction and trading corporation).

The Basic Concept of this Skyscraper

The government of Dubai decided to construct this building to diversify their country from an oil-based economy and to archive international recognition through tourism. Therefore, building is design to be a centerpiece of large scale mixed-use development.

Although, it was originally named as Burj Dubai, But while the construction of building there were issue of debt then Khalifa bin Zayed AL Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of UAE, funding to pay debt of building therefore building name changed to Burj Khalifa.

Mr. Mohamed Alabber, chairmen of Emaar properties, said “Burj Khalifa goes beyond its imposing physical specification. In this building we see the triumph of Dubai’s vision of attending the seemingly impossible and setting new benchmark. It is a source of inspiration for everyone at Emaar. The project is the declaration of the Emirate’s capabilities and of the resolve of its leader and people to work hand-in-hand on truly awe-inspiring projects.”

History of height increases of structure –

Building Features

It is a truly mixed-use tower, has 1.85 million sq. feet of residential space and 3,00,000 sq. feet of office space, in addition to the Armani Hotel Dubai and Armani Residences. Moreover, tower also features lounges, health and wellness facilities, four pools and two observation decks.

Besides all that other important features of the building are given following –

Tallest art gallery

It have the commissioned works of over 85 artists from around the world. Also, the artworks is from impressionism to abstracts works and they all reveal an Arabic culture context.

World’s fastest double-deck elevators

The building have total 57 elevators & 8 escalators. Among them, are the world’s tallest service escalators which travel at 10 m/s.

World highest base jump

It has the site of the world’s highest BASE jump. UAE national Nasser al nayadi and his sky driving trainer Omar alhegelan jumped off the tower and makes a smooth landing after covering a vertical distance of 672 meters.

The Dubai fountain

Outside the building a fountain system established which cost is about $ 217 million. With 6600 lights and 50 colored projects, it is 270 m long and capable to shoots water 150 m into the air. It is the world’s second-largest choreographed fountain.

Observation Deck

The building has two outside observation deck on the 124^th floor (452 m) and 148^th floor (555 m). With that 124^th floor observation deck also features an electronic telescope which allows the visitor to view the surrounding landscape in real-time and to view previously saved image such as those taken at a different time of day.

Burj Khalifa Park

The building is surrounded by an 11 hac.(27 acre.) park design by the SWA group. Also, the design of building was based on the flower of the Hymenocalliis, a desert plant. At the center of the park is the water room, which is a series of pools and water jet fountains. The plants are watered by water collected from the building’s cooling system.

Floor plans

The details of the all the floors in building is describe as below…

Architectural Specification

Design of this building was taken by the hymenocallis a regional desert flower that inspired architect Adrian smith’s vision of an iconic tower.

It’s Y shaped plan allowed for the building to be rotated 120 degrees and for each tier of the building to have different width, also the Y-shaped floor plan maximizes views of the Arabian Gulf.  The modular Y-shaped structure, with setback along each of its three wings, provides an inherently stable configuration for the structure and provides good floor plates for residential.

Confusing the wind

The tower composed of three elements arranged around a central core which is emerges at the top and culminates in a sculpted spire.

In addition, there are twenty-six helical levels which decrease the cross-section of tower incrementally as it spirals skyward. The stepping of each tier helped to reduce the wind force on the tower.

A beautiful facade

It is maintained via 18 permanently installed track and fixes telescopic, cradle-equipped units. The jib arms of each extended up to 36 meters. Under normal conditions it takes 3 to 4 months to clean the entire exterior facade.

A beacon of light

To prevent aircraft collisions this building is equipped with high-intensity xenon white obstruction lights that flash 40 times per minute. The flash intensity of light changes through the day –        

Interiors

The interior design of building was done by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP and led by Nada Andric. It features glass, stainless steel and polished dark stone, together flooring of silver travertine, handmade rugs and stone. With that the interior was inspired by local culture.

Air conditioning

The conditioning system provided in structure draws air from the upper floors where the air is cooler and cleaner than the ground. After that, Water collecting via conditioning system is used for the irrigation of nearby parks.

Other essential operations

All equipment essential for the operation of this huge structure is housed in 7 double story height mechanical floors. Located every 30 floors, they accommodate the electric substations, water tanks and pump handling unit.

It’s water system supplies an average of 946000 liters of water a day. Given the height of the tower, water storage tanks are installed in the main mechanical plant room floor.

Structural Specification

Burj Khalifa which weighs about 5,00,000 tones is supported by a 3.7 meter thick reinforced concrete mat. It took 12,500 cubic meters of high density, low permeability concrete to build the mat.

Its foundation is, made up of 125 piles that are 1.5 meters in diameter and 50 meters in length comprising 45000 cubic meters of concrete, reinforced with steel.

Besides that the cathodic protection system under the mat helps to mitigate the effects of corrosive chemicals in the groundwater. Most wonder of this structure was made possible by the collaboration of 30 on-site contracting companies from around the world.

Most powerful cranes

The construction site features three of the world’s largest cranes with the self-locking modernism and capacity to lift 25 tonnes.

Pumping concrete

Throughout the project high compressive strength concrete mixtures were used to stand with record-breaking height. However, Pours were only done at night with concrete being chilled before mixing and part of the water being replaced with a shard of ice.

Casting call

A jump from the system was used to cast the Burj Khalifa concrete structure and at peak efficiency, it was able to cast a story every three days 

Materialistic Specification

The building is constructed with,

• 330000 cubic meter of concrete weight equals to 1 lakh elephant
• 39000 m/t of reinforced steel
• 103000 square meter of glass
• 15500 square meter of embossed stainless steel
• 22 million man-hours to build the tower
• $1.5 billion and

Much more than the above materials required to complete this huge project. 

Services of Burj Khalifa

As the main focus of building is design to be the centerpiece of large scale mixed-use development. So, The Burj Khalifa provides the following services-

Armani Hotel

It have the world’s first Armani Hotel which give visitors the sense of luxury. Besides that, the main concept of hotel is to feel consumer house like environment at hotel so it have no check-in desk at reception.

Armani residences

In Burj Khalifa, Armani residences are located on levels 9 to 16. Also, the each apartment has bespoke finishes and made to measure furniture and fittings.

The Burj Club

It is a 6320 square-meter with high-end fitness and wellness retreat in the heart of Dubai which is set over the five levels (one level being exclusively for ladies).

All kind of facilities like fitness, leisure and well being facilities includes with panoramic views of Downtown Dubai.

Major facilities provided in the Burj club is as following-

1. The Burj Club Gym – It have fitness centers which offer gym to optimal workout spaces for members and non-members.
2. Burj Club SPA – The SPA at Burj club is equipped with a sauna, steam room, and experience showers.
3. Rooftop the Burj Club – It offering an open rooftop poll and dining.

Base jumping

The building has been used for the BASE jumping for many times:

1. In May 2008, Herve Le Gallon and David Mc Donnell jumped off a balcony situated several floors below the 160^th floor (650 m).
2. On 8 January 2010, Naser Al niyadi Omar Al Hegelan jumped to the 160^th floor at 672 m.
3. On 21 April 2014, experienced French base jumper Vince Reffet and Fred Fugen broke the genius world record of base jumping from the top of the pinnacle at 828 m.

Climbing

Alain Robert (Spider-man) scaled the outside of the building On 28 March 2011. The climb to the top of the spire took six hours with UAE safety laws Robert used a rope and harness.

Problem Facing while Construction

During the construction of such a tall structure which never done before in history, engineers facing many problems which solution becomes innovation in itself.

These are the major problems which were bid task for the engineers – 

Wind

In the construction of any kind of tall structure wind plays a major role in the design process. To ensure the structure safety of the building more than 40 wind tunnel tests were conducted on it that ranging from verifying Dubai’s wind climate to faced pressure tests.

“Y” shaped structure of building is help the engineers to overcome this problem. Engineers spent months on designing this Y shaped design. So, the wind could strike the tower from any kind of direction and the opposite leg of Y would remain unstressed.

The Stack Effect

It is the most common problem in most of the high rise buildings. The stack effect is the movement of air throughout the building. Because, Warm air is light is density and weight as compared to cold air. So, the warm air rise to the top of the building and cold air at bottom tries to fill the crack and this problem increase in winter.

The problem is caused that pressure at the bottom is build up and cause more cracks. Cracks in the foundation could cause complete structural failure. To immigrate to this effect, the designer of the building used many air duct system in the building.

Pumping of concrete

The task of the pumping concrete from ground to above 1600 feet had simply not done before. To done this engineers simulated the effect of pumping concrete and the effect of friction volume flow were studied. So, the researchers could estimate the pressure required for the pumping of concrete above 1600 feet.     

With the setting a world record in the process, engineers successfully used 80 MPa pressure to pump the concrete at 1988 feet (606 m).

Safety during disaster

Safety becomes the number one priority when more than 12,000 people work at a time while the construction of this huge structure. One major problem prevalent that in case of fire and any disaster it is completely unreasonable for a person to walk down from the 160^th floor.

Therefore, designer’s implemented pressurized air-conditioned refugee areas at every 25 floors. Besides that the building also has a service elevator that can hold 5500 kg and it is tallest in the world.

Awards & Records

The Building set several world records as follows-

Interesting Facts

Degree of difference

The ambient temperature at the tip of Burj Khalifa is 6 degrees cooler than the temperature at ground level.

Opening doors

 There are more than 17000 doors in this building.

Raise the sun

It is so tall that you can see the sun-set twice in the same evening first from low floor and then again from a top floor

Visiting Burj Khalifa

After getting so much information about this amazing structure, everyone wants to get a tour of this building. So, if plan trip to Dubai your trip will not complete without a view from the magnificent observation deck.

I think you should watch this video of the complete tour of this building and I’m sure after watching this you cant’t stop yourself to visit this amazing structure. Here’s you will know how to get to the top of the this structure?

Way to reach at Burj Khalifa

The building is located in downtown Dubai, near the Dubai Mall. You can reach there by own personal facilities or by the Dubai metro. 

If you are traveling from Dubai metro, take a Red line to Burj Khalifa station. From there you can take the F13 bus and reach to next stop which is the Dubai mall bus stop. Once you get into the mall you need to walk to the lower ground of the mall where the ticket office of Burj Khalifa is available nearby the subway sandwich restaurant.

Price of ticket

The price of the ticket depends upon the observation deck you choose.

Conclusion

In nutshell we can say that Burj Khalifa is the marvels structure in the history of civil engineering. It is a large structure used for many purposes like hotel, residence, club, office and more.

May be in future its record of it’s height will break but at present it is the tallest structure in the world.

Also Read- Golden Gate Bridge- Most Photographed Bridge in the World

                    Hoover Dam- Introduction, Structure, Services & Visiting

Frequently Asked Question

Mahendra

Civil Engineer | Building Planner | Content Writer | Freelancer
Hello there,
I am Passionate of planning and designing of buildings. Skilled in AutoCAD, Revit, 3d Max and Etabs.
With that I also like to writing blogs and content.