The Burj Dubai (Arabic: برج دبي for "Dubai Tower") is a skyscraper currently under construction, since April 15, 2005, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, at 25°11′58.34″N, 55°16′20.66″E. The lead architect is Adrian Smith of the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Its final height is officially being kept a secret due to competition; however, figures released by a contractor on the project have suggested a height of around 808 metres (2650 feet). The total number of habitable floors is expected to be around 162. As of September, 2006, the Burj was at 72 stories and about 800 feet (240 metres) high.

Size

Upon its completion in 2008 the Burj Dubai will likely become the tallest building in the world. It will beat out the current title holder, Taipei 101 in Taiwan, as well as numerous other proposals including the Freedom Tower at New York City's World Trade Center and the Shanghai World Financial Center. In addition, it will assume the title of the world's tallest structure, surpassing the tallest freestanding structure (on land), Toronto's CN Tower, as well as the guyed KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota, the latter setting a minimum height for the tower at almost 630 m.

Though unconfirmed, Burj Dubai has been through several height increases since its inception. Originally proposed as virtually a clone of the 560 m Grollo Tower proposal from Australia, the tower was soon redesigned to an original Skidmore Owings and Merril design seen above and discussed below. This design stood approximately 705 meters tall. The lead architect, Adrian Smith, felt that the design of the top did not culminate very well, so he sought and received approval to increase it to the currently planned height. It has been explicitly stated that this did not include an addition of more floors , which is fitting with Smith's attempts to make the crown more slender. However, the top of the tower, from the 156th floor onward or from 575 meters to the top, will be a steel frame structure, unlike the lower portion's reinforced concrete. The developer, Emaar, has stated this steel section may be extended to beat any other tower to the title of tallest, however once the tower is complete the height cannot be changed.

Architecture and design

The tower is designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, who also designed the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Freedom Tower in New York City, among numerous other famous high-rises.

The design of Burj Dubai is ostensibly derived from the patterning systems embodied in Islamic architecture. The tower is composed of three elements arranged around a central core. As the tower rises from the flat desert base, setbacks occur at each element in an upward spiraling pattern, decreasing the cross section of the tower as it reaches toward the sky. At the top, the central core emerges and is sculpted to form a finishing spire. A Y-shaped floor plan maximizes views of the Persian Gulf.

The interior will be decorated by Giorgio Armani. An Armani Hotel (the first of its kind) will occupy the lower 37 floors. Floors 45 through 108 will have 700 private apartments in 64 floors (which, according to the developer, sold out within eight hours of going on sale). Corporate offices and suites will fill most of the remaining floors, except for a 123rd floor lobby and 124th floor indoor/outdoor observation deck. The spire will also hold communications equipment. An outdoor zero-entry swimming pool will be located on the 78th floor of the tower.

It will also feature the world's fastest elevator, at 18 m/s (65 km/h, 40 mph). The world's current fastest elevator is in the Taipei 101 office tower, Taipei, Taiwan, at 16.83 m/s (60.6 km/h, 37.5 mph).

Purpose

The Burj Dubai has been designed to be the center of a large-scale, mixed-use development that will include 30,000 homes, nine hotels, six acres of parkland, 19 residential towers, and 12 hectare Burj Dubai Lake. The complete development will cost about US$ 8 billion. Once completed, the tower will cover a total of 2 million m² (22 million ft²) of development.

The Burj Dubai will be the latest feather in the cap of Dubai, also home to the world's tallest hotel, the Burj al-Arab, the (soon to be completed) world's largest man-made marina, the Dubai Marina; the (soon to be completed) world's largest artificial island, The Palm, Deira which surpasses its sister "Palm Islands" developments The Palm, Jumeirah and The Palm, Jebel Ali. There is also the extensive Dubai Waterfront project and the (soon to be completed) world's largest mall, the Dubai Mall. In addition, there is the planned world's first underwater hotel Hydropolis, as well as the exclusive island projects The World (archipelago) and The Lagoons.

The silvery glass-sheathed concrete building will restore to the Middle East the honor of hosting the earth's tallest structure—a title lost circa 1300 when the Lincoln Cathedral upset the 38-century reign of Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza.

The decision to build Burj Dubai and other skyscrapers is reportedly based on the government's decision to diversify from a trade-based (and oil-reliant) economy to one that is service- and tourism-oriented. While many champion Dubai's strides at changing its core economy, others have raised questions about the necessity of building the world's tallest building in Dubai. Currently, Dubai has a population of 1.5 million, with many areas of it still being desert land (covering over 90% of the 1,517 mile² country ), or very less occupied. However, others feel it is necessary for projects like Burj Dubai to be built in the city, so that Dubai can get more recognition in the outside world. "He (Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum) wanted to put Dubai on the map with something really sensational," said Jacqui Josephson, Tourism and VIP delegations executive at Nakheel Properties. .

Race for the top

Burj Dubai's main competitor now is actually proposed at a location 50 km (30 miles) away from the Burj Dubai site. This tower, Al Burj (originally planned for the centre of Palm Jumeirah), is being developed by Nakheel Properties and is keeping the height under wraps. It said to be at least 700 m tall, making it a formidable threat to Burj Dubai's world's tallest building status. Also competing with the Burj Dubai, a proposed 1001 metre-high skyscraper may be erected in Kuwait as part of a new city development project called Madinat al-Hareer ("City of Silk"). However, the project is part of a massive redevelopment expected to take 25 years to complete according to some reports , compared to Burj Dubai's current progress rate of seven days per floor (which is expected to pick up as the tower gets closer towards the top); the entire development incorporates an Olympic stadium, residences, hotels, and retail facilities.

Labor controversy

Burj Dubai is being built primarily by immigrant engineers and workers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Press reports indicate that skilled carpenters at the site earn £4.34 (US$7.60) a day and labourers £2.84 (US$4.00). Unions were forbidden in the United Arab Emirates previously, but the government recently announced steps to allow construction unions.

On March 21, 2006, tensions boiled over at the construction site as workers employed by Al Naboodah who were building the Dubai Mall next to Burj Dubai, rioted over low wages and poor working conditions. They damaged cars, offices, computers, and construction tools to the value of over a million dollars. At Dubai International Airport, construction workers staged a sympathy strike. News reports about the riots conflicted with each other in regards to whether or not the riots affected work at the Burj Dubai itself, with the majority of reports claiming that it did. However, the development manager for Samsung Corp., the South Korean chaebol that is chief contractor on the Burj Dubai, said construction of the skyscraper was moving ahead, and not affected by the labour dispute, in which builders on adjacent towers are asking for better pay and employment conditions. The United Arab Emirates has received considerable attention recently with regard to its labour laws. Several groups have cited widespread abuse of workers and appalling working conditions.

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