Burj Dubai reaches defining moment as world's tallest building begins to rise

Burj Dubai, Emaar Properties' iconic building symbolizing modernity and engineering prowess, has reached a defining moment in its history as the world's tallest tower rises, making the surrounding district the most prestigious square kilometre in the world.

Emaar Properties Executive Director Robert Booth.
The important second stage of this world-class project follows the completion of complex foundation work on the tower slated for completion in 2008. Emaar had earlier announced that South Korea based-Samsung Corporation has won a global bid for US$900 million (AED 3.285 billion) for the construction of the tower.

Speaking to the media during a hard-hat tour of the Burj Dubai construction site, Emaar Properties Executive Director Robert Booth informed that the foundation work, completed in record 12 months at a cost of US$15 million, (AED 54 million) involved some critical measures taken to ensure that the tallest man-made structure sits on a strong steel and concrete podium.

The tower's 192 piles have been constructed to depths of more than 50 metres and are bound together by a 3.7 metre thick concrete raft across 8,000 square metres, encompassing the tower's entire footprint.

Nearly 18,000 cubic metres (cbm) of cement concrete was poured for the tower piles while 15,000 cbm of concrete was used for the podium piles. The raft, in addition, comprise of 12,300 cbm of concrete, bringing the total concrete poured into the foundation to over 45,000 cbm weighing more than 110,000 tonnes.

'We now embark on the exciting part of the development where the world can witness our promise of 'History Rising' coming to fruition,' said Booth. 'The tower is composed of three elements arranged around a central core. As the tower rises from the foundation raft, setbacks occur at each element in an upward-spiraling pattern, decreasing the mass of the tower as it reaches towards the sky.

'The tower design created by celebrity architect Adrian Smith for Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) is inspired from the geometrics of the desert flower and the patterning systems employed in Islamic architecture. It combines these historical and cultural influences with cutting-edge technology to achieve a high performance building which will set the new standard for development in the Middle East and become the model for the future of the city of Dubai.

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