Never Replicated

“No one giant does it. It is a lot of little steps”, quoted by Peter A. Cohen. Dubai Burj, the previous name of Burj Khalifa known by very few, is the tallest building in the world and is human-made Mount Everest peak. It is 828 mts. tall and is about 50 mts. deep. This tower was designed by Skidmore Owings & Merril LLP (SOM) and is owned by Emaar Properties. The construction began in January 2004 and Dubai wants this to be an ambitious project that can never be replicated again.

The Burj Khalifa Engineering Marvel and Design Icon-Sheet1
Burj Khalifa the tallest building- 828mts_ © https://medium.com

Initial thought can change

Initially, Burj Khalifa was intended to be around 550 mts—tall, slightly passing the then-tallest building Taipei 101 in Taiwan. Later during the planning stage, the height was pushed further, resulting in 828mts. The structural design of the tower is inspired by a flower spider lily that is widely found in Dubai. The building is a Y-shaped structure supported by a hexagonal core and is known as the Buttress Core System. It is an architectural element designed to transmit a structure’s vertical load directly to the foundation, an invention of structural engineer Bill Baker. The tower has 163 floors in total consisting of residential spaces, restaurants, offices, tourist spots, observation decks, a library, etc.

The Burj Khalifa Engineering Marvel and Design Icon-Sheet2
The floor plan of Burj Khalifa _ © https://media.architecturaldigest.com

Being the tallest building, the tower faced a lot of challenges as the foundation alone took 1 year for excavation. The foundation has 192 concrete and steel columns extending 50 mts. into the ground. Especially for the tower’s development the world’s largest concrete pumps were developed to deliver concrete to the top floors. Transporting the concrete to the higher levels took 1 minute and during this time the concrete starts hardening. Thus, to solve this problem the team did several experiments and changed the chemical composition of the material so that it remains moist and plasticity till it gets up. Pumping concrete at the height of 2000 feet sets a worldwide record. The total weight of concrete used is equivalent to the weight of 1 lakh elephants. This tower is the first tallest building that consists of residential space and during construction workers faced a lot of problems, even 3 contractors died tragically. Adrian Smith is the chief architect of the tower and he completed all the plans of Burj Khalifa within 3 months, whereas the building took 6 long years to be made into reality.

At present, the facility management team struggles to climb the tower to clean the glass façade which takes 3-4 months to be completed. There are 36 people known as “Spiderman” who climb the tower with appropriate protection for cleaning especially from Nepal. Wind plays a dangerous role for any tall building and can lead to collapse. Dubai is the toughest terrain to work on, every year in summer the country is hit by sandstorms resulting in thick clouds with red sand in the air at a speed of 50 miles/per hour. If a building is not designed right to handle the wind pressure it becomes a disaster. To ensure that the Burj Khalifa is stable enough the structural engineer Bill Baker came up with an unconventional idea that this tower is not going to be a conventional building in a rectangular shape. Rather, it will be a cluster of different heights of skyscrapers at different levels. As being on different levels the wind pressure is also different at different heights so there is no chance that wind can ever overpower the building. There is an observation tower on floor 148 which is more than 1800 feet high hence due to its shape the tower can support more floors.

Challenges Encountered

Another problem that the tower encountered was efficient transport in vertical living. Stairs are impractical though Burj Khalifa has a lot of them, nearly 3000. Elevators are the only key but not a simple solution as seems to be. The tower has 57 elevators and the engineers came up with an idea to categorise elevators into express and local elevators similar to trains. 8 of these are express elevators that will stop only at sky lobbies and from there, residents or visitors can take the local elevator to stop on every floor. Also, there are 2 double-decker elevators for floor number 148 reaching the observation deck. These are the fastest elevators in the world transporting people at a speed of 22 miles per hour. In case of emergency, elevators are used in Burj Khalifa rather than stairs, strange but true. Also, architects and engineers have designed the tower using materials that can withstand fire for a much longer time, concluding the people should have enough time to at least reach the refuge floor that is planned on every 30 floors. 

The tower has faced a lot more challenges to overcome, namely air conditioning due to its glass façade which is the tallest curtain wall in the world. The glass used reflects 70% of the sunlight to keep the tower cool but it is not enough. Several other elements help the tower to not become a greenhouse gas chamber. Additionally, supplying water to all the floors is also not an easy task against gravity. Engineers have overcome every challenge to cater to the requirements of the tower. Dubai faces a lot of lighting and the tower being so high is prone to it thus, it acts as a conductor and very safely transmits the energy to the ground. Burj Khalifa is designed to withstand lightning strikes nearly 100 times in its lifetime.

The Burj Khalifa Engineering Marvel and Design Icon-Sheet3
Burj Khalifa a lighting conductor _ © https://www.flickr.com

Burj Khalifa is a promising tower based upon hard work, patience, dedication, problem-solving attitude, responsibility, etc. taken by the government, architects, engineers, labourers, contractors, consultants, etc. included from all over the world. About 30 countries were involved in the construction process and an installation known as World Voices is installed at the residence lobby in the tower in the remembrance of Divided We Fall, Together We Rise. Honestly, it’s a man-made miraculous giant tower that is invaluable to any other to date.

Online sources:

Citations for websites:

Fahimfmk (2024). The tale of Burj Khalifa why it remains the world’s tallest building. [online]. Available at: https://medium.com/@fahimfmk/the-tale-of-burj-khalifa-why-it-remains-the-worlds-tallest-building-62b716b5ee58 [Accessed 2 Oct 2024].

Emaar Properties. Burj Khalifa. [online]. Available at: https://www.burjkhalifa.ae/en/the-stories.aspx#:~:text=Inspired%20by%20the%20Spider%20Lily,vision%20of%20the%20iconic%20tower. [Accessed 2 Oct 2024].

Images/visual mediums

Citations for YouTube videos:

Red Arrows. (2022). Burj Khalifa, Dubai – Engineering Marvels: World’s Tallest Building – UAE Engineering

Documentary. [YouTube video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBSI8FHFb6U [Accessed 2 October 2024].

Author

Ditriksha Tyagi was born in Gurgaon and later moved to Meerut, where she completed her education. In Jaipur, she pursued her Interior design course for four years and there she discovered her passion for writing and communication. Currently, she is 23 years old and working in Gurgaon.