There are many places in Dubai if you are looking for some adventure travel, but none compares to the two buildings Dubai is known for; the amazing Burj Khalifa and luxurious Burj Al-Arab.
Building the first 7 star hotel, Burj-Al-Arab was a catalyst for future infrastructure development UAE was about to undergo.
Building Burj Khalifa, the highest building in the world, was not an easy project for the developers.
So the structure’s owners, Emaar Properties, hired some of the best talents in the world to complete the project.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of Chicago (who were also the architect of Sears tower), Adrian Smith as Chief Architect, and Bill Baker as Chief structural engineers organized the tower’s architecture and engineering.
NORR Group Consultants International Limited supervised the project and Hyder Consulting as supervision engineers were selected for the architecture of the project.
While the owners selected the Korean based firm, Samsung C&T build Burj Khalifa as a primary contractor.
Burj Khalifa is not only the largest structure in the world, but it also breaks several other records impressively.
Burj Khalifa holds the record of 828 meters (2716.5 feet) high, comparatively, The Eiffel Tower is three times shorter and the Empire State Building approximately half. Its cloud-piercing height is one of its most impressive features.
If you are curious to know more here are the most interesting facts about Burj Khalifa:
14. Burj Khalifa has 2 sunsets
Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest structure, is so high that from its base, the sunset can be observed twice, with one of the fastest elevators in the world one can reach to its tallest outdoor observation deck in the world on 124th floor to can see the sunset all over again.
Explanation-
Considering Burj’s height, there is a time gap of 3 minutes as you can view the sunset on the ground and quickly go through elevators on the top floor (It takes around 90 seconds to reach the top).
So you could enjoy the sunset for a second time on the same day for 90 seconds.
13. It is home to first Armani 5-star hotel
Armani hotel is located in Burj Khalifa–the first-ever hotel designed by the maestro Giorgio Armani himself.
The hotel is elegantly designed in calm grey tones and minimalist interior, which are characteristic of the style of Armani.
You may all recognize the Armani Hotel, but it’s fun for you because Giorgio Armani wanted visitors to experience what the entrance into the house means–there is no reception or check-in counter.
There are many buildings in Dubai with luxurious amenities, but none have exceptional interiors like Armani.
12. A walk on water
Glass and lighting evoke the impression of stepping on the water in the entrance to the spa in every Sky Lobby.
11. Prince Hamdan hoisted Dubai flag on the tip
To celebrate Expo 2020, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Hamdan Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, hoisted the UAE flag at the tip of the Burj.
10. Spectacular view above the clouds
The clouds are usually less than 1800 meters in Dubai and throughout the Middle East.
This unusual phenomenon is all about the altitude and the kind of clouds that form.
Clouds don’t fall and reach approximately 700 m in Dubai(exceptions).
When you are at the Burj Khalifa’s highest occupied floor on a foggy day, it may give you an illusion of standing on clouds.
9. Luxurious artistic experience
Building the Burj Khalifa was not strictly technical as the common spaces are decorated with an exclusive fragrance, chosen from 18 distinct aromas.
The interior depicts facets of the Middle East culture, Islamic architecture, including calligraphy and sand-dunes.
Any structure such as the Burj Khalifa will have plenty of space on its walls.
It is known Burj Khalifa details that the art collection of the building is enormous in all: over 1000 works by some world’s best-known artists (with a focus on Middle Eastern artists) hang in the interiors — many of which are commissioned specifically.
8. Burj Khalifa could be biggest musical instrument in the world
We construct many skyscrapers to bend with wind — the Burj is more exposed than others to powerful desert storms.
George J. Efstathiou (architect) clarified that to build the wind durability, he designed the structure in such a way that it gently swings the wind so that the human ears cant feel pressure difference.
Burj Khalifa’s design curtain wall sets it in sync like a musical tool so that the harmonics do not match those of the wind (do not resonate with the wind).
7. Tom Cruise climbed the Burj in Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol
If you are a fan of mission impossible series, then you must know that Tom Cruise insists on performing all the stunts himself.
Tom enjoys performing death-defying feats on the screen, whether it’s stepping up his manhood ego, shake actors and directors in their seats, or get some old-fashioned thrills.
It is one of the interesting facts about Burj Khalifa that in 2011 Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol Tom Cruise did not even blink at it while performing the act. He scaled to 2,722 feet above the floor of the world’s highest building.
Yeah, he did all of it himself, no double trick! Cruise taught months but did not expect that he was experiencing the intense crosswinds at that point.
He continuously smashed several times into the curtain wall, but the shot was completed.
There are other adrenaline freaks too, like Fred Fugen, and Vince Reffet broke the world record base jump the 2717-feet height.
6. It is artistic but not ordinarily artistic
Art enthusiasts seem to be glad to realize that the beautiful desert flower-shaped building is packed with extraordinary pieces of art.
A sculpture created with shifting oval shapes by Egyptian-born artist Karim Rashid found at the corporate entrance and the installation “World Voices” in the living space.
It features the dangling cymbals sounding as drops of water hit them, and the latter is the work of Catalan artist Jaume Plensa.
5. The tip of this skyscraper can be seen from a distance of 95 km away
The ‘telescopic’ spiral, which is created of more than 4,000 tonnes of steel, is one of the most identifiable architectural characteristics of the Burj Khalifa.
This spiral can be seen up to 60 miles (95 km) away on a typical sunny day.
4. Comparatively, few labors died during construction
There have surprisingly been very few accidental deaths–there has been only one, according to some records, while the other states four.
The amount may, however, be much higher, given that the terrible circumstances in which many workers (mostly from South Asia) had undergone.
Health issues associated with long-term probems are not taken into consideration.
3. Burj Khalifa has temperature difference as that of mountains.
At Burj Khalifa’s highest level, tourists can have a temperature of almost 15 degrees lower than the building’s base.
It is equivalent to the effortless scaling of a mountain, as temperatures lowers as the height increase going high up the altitude.
2. Extreme Material use
Such a mega-structures also requires extraordinary quantities of raw products.
It is one Burj Khalifa information that it is made up of so much concrete that alone concrete can weigh equivalent to 100000 elephants.
If you want to take this into account, the average weight of an elephant is around 5 tons. A massive amount of fifty thousand tons of concrete was used to make the famous Burj Khalifa!
We can’t imagine the capacity of the concrete pump.
It’s also said that building Burj Khalifa 55,000 tonnes of steel rebar were used.
Assume that if we set the entire rebar used in the construction in line; We can cover about a quarter of the circumference of the planet.
The sum of the aluminum used in the building was equivalent to five A380 Airbus passenger aircraft’s total weights. It’s good that the managers didn’t order everything altogether!
Burj Khalifa’s astronomical construction cost 1.5 billion dollars. In the first year of its opening, it paid the full expenditure off.
The construction site for this wonder was a demonstration alone. It has been driven by the world’s most ingenious machinery and equipment.
They also built Burj Khalifa with the three biggest self-jacking cranes in the world, each with a 25-ton carrying capacity.
The structure lasted nearly six years to complete. As its construction was underway, over 12,000 workers of the day worked on the project at a time.
1. Exact reason to build it
Burj Khalifa was constructed from 2004 to 2009 and inaugurated in 2010, proving to be a major tourist destination along with Dubai fountain in Downtown Dubai.
The government’s choice to diverse itself from the oil economy makes Dubai a dream place of people around the globe and to gain worldwide recognition.
The building’s original name was Burj Dubai, which was renamed to Burj Khalifa in honor of Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan (Sheikh Khalifa), the President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi.
The Khalifa Tower (unofficial name) has 2909 steps, stretching from the ground level to 160.
It covers an area of 11 hectares, six startling features of water, and an area of 3000 underground parking.
It has four swimming pools (including the second-highest pool at the 76th floor) and At.mosphere, the highest fine-dining restaurant in the world on level 122.
Burj Khalifa needs 250,000 gallons of water (946,000 liters) daily.
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Burj Khalifa has a built-up area of 5.67 million square feet and has 1.85 million square feet of residential space (Burj Khalifa is home 35,000 people) and over 300,000 of prime office space.
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat recognize Burj Khalifa as the tallest freestanding structure in the world.
Soon a tower named Jeddah Tower or Kingdom Tower, which is located in Saudi Arabia will surpass Burj Khalifa for the title.
