Burj Khalifa-steps to the sky.

Burj Khalifa one more step to sky on human history. Bringing Burj Khalifa to life required a combination of visionary ideals and solid science. In the process, the project amassed an awe-inspiring number of facts, figures, and statistics.The Burj Khalifa Tower is the world’s tallest structure, passing all previous height records.

Such a project by necessity requires pushing current analysis, material, construction technologies, and building systems to literally new heights. However, as such a building height has never before been attempted, it is also necessary to ensure all technologies and methods used are of sound development and practice. As such, the designers sought to be able to use conventional systems, materials, and construction methods — modified and utilized in new capacities — to achieve such a lofty goal.

 The World Records Broken By Burj Khalifa:

                                 • Tallest building in the world
                                 • Tallest free-standing structure in the world
                                 • Highest number of stories in the world
                                 • Highest occupied floor in the world
                                 • Highest outdoor observation deck in the world
                                 • Elevator with the longest travel distance in the world
                                 • Tallest service elevator in the world

DESIGN:

Inspired Design: 

Hymenocallis.like petals from a stem, the tower's wings extend from its central core.

No stranger to Middle Eastern design, architect Adrian Smith incorporated patterns from traditional Islamic architecture. But his most inspiring muse was a regional desert flower, the Hymenocallis, whose harmonious structure is one of the organizing principles of the tower's design.

ORGANIC DESIGN:The architecture features a triple-lobed footprint, an abstraction of the Hymenocallis flower.The primary design concept of the tower is an organic form with tri-axial geometry and spiraling growth that can be easily seen in the final design. Additionally, traditional Islamic forms were utilized to enrich the tower’s design, and to incorporate visual references to the culture and history of the surrounding region. As such, the floor plan of the tower consists of a tri-axial, “Y” shaped plan, formed by having three separate wings connected to a central core. As the tower rises, one wing at each tier sets back in a spiraling pattern, further emphasizing its height. The Y-shape plan is ideal for residential and hotel use in that it allows the maximum views outward without overlooking a neighboring unit. The wings contain the residential units and hotel guest rooms, with the central core housing all of the elevators and mechanical closets. The tower is serviced by five separate mechanical zones, located approximately 30 floors apart over the height of the building. Located above the occupied reinforced concrete portion of the building is the structural steel spire, housing communication and mechanical floors, and completing the architectural form of the tower. The result is an efficient building in terms of its functionality, structural system, and response to wind, while still maintaining the integrity of the initial design concept.

INTERIOR DESIGN: The interior design of Burj Khalifa public areas was also done by the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP and was led by award-winning designer Nada Andric. It features glass, stainless steel and polished dark stones, together with silver travertine flooring, Venetian stucco walls, handmade rugs and stone flooring. The interior were inspired by local cultural while staying mindful of the buildings status as a global icon and residence. Over 1,000 pieces of art from prominent Middle Eastern and international artists will adorn Burj Khalifa and the surrounding Emaar Boulevard. Many of the pieces were specially commissioned by Emaar to be a tribute to the spirit of global harmony. The pieces were selected as a means of linking cultures and communities, symbolic of Burj Khalifa being an international collaboration.

Interior views of Burj Khalifa

Exterior Cladding: The exterior cladding is comprised of reflective glazing with aluminum and textured stainless steel spandrel panels and stainless steel vertical tubular fins. Close to 26,000 glass panels, each individually hand-cut, were used in the exterior cladding of Burj Khalifa. Over 300 cladding specialists from China were brought in for the cladding work on the tower. The cladding system is designed to withstand Dubai's extreme summer heat, and to further ensure its integrity, a World War II airplane engine was used for dynamic wind and water testing. The curtain wall of Burj Khalifa is equivalent to 17 football (soccer) fields or 25 American football fields.

Exterior Cladding of Burj Khalifa

Floor Plan:

The Park: 11 hectare park, 6 water features.

B1-B2: Parking (3000 underground parking spaces)

Concourse: Armani Hotel (Guestrooms and suites)

Ground: Armani Hotel (Guestrooms and suites)

1-8: Armani Hotel (Guestrooms and suites)

9-16: Armani Residences (luxurious one and two bedroom Armani Residences)

17-18: Mechanical

19-37: The Residences (900 Burj Khalifa residences)

38-39: Armani Hotel Suites

40-42: Mechanical

43: Sky Lobby and state-of-the-art fitness facilities including a Jacuzzi & swimming pool

44-72: Residential (private ultra-luxury residences)

73-75: Mechanical

76: Sky Lobby and state-of-the-art fitness facilities including a Jacuzzi & swimming pool

77-108: Residential (private ultra-luxury residences)

109-110: Mechanical

111-121: The Corporate Suites (office floors)

122: Atmosphere, Burj Khalifa (Fine dining restaurant)

123: Sky Lobby and state-of-the-art fitness facilities including a Jacuzzi

124: At The Top, Burj Khalifa (Observation deck/ Public Observatory)

125-135: The Corporate Suites (office floors)

136-138: Mechanical

139-154: The Corporate Suites (office floors)

155: Mechanical

156-159: Communication & Broadcast

160 upwards: Mechanical Other facilities for residents include a Residents' Library, and Burj Khalifa Gourmet Market, a gourmet convenience store and meeting place for the residents. Valet parking will be provided for guests and visitors.

WIND ENGINEERING: 

For a building of this height and slenderness, wind forces and the resulting motions in the upper levels become dominant factors in the structural design. An extensive program of wind tunnel tests and other studies were undertaken by the wind tunnel consultant, RWDI, in its boundary layer wind tunnels in Guelph, Ontario, to evaluate the effects of wind on building loading, behavior, and occupant comfort. Additionally, the wind tunnel testing program was utilized as part of a process to shape the building to minimize wind effects. As mentioned above, this process resulted in a substantial reduction in wind forces on the tower by confusing the wind — by encouraging disorganized vortex shedding over the height of the tower. The wind tunnel testing program included rigid-model force balance tests, a full aeroelastic model study, measurements of localized pressures, and pedestrian wind environment studies. Wind statistics played an important role in relating the predicted levels of response to return period. Extensive use was made of ground-based wind data, balloon data, and computer simulations employing Regional Atmospheric Modeling techniques to establish the wind regime at the upper levels. Based on the results of the wind tunnel testing program, the predicted building motions are within the ISO standard recommended values without the need for auxiliary damping.

Wind Tunnel Test

 STRUCTURAL SYSTEM:

In addition to its aesthetic and functional advantages, the spiraling “Y” shaped plan was utilized to shape the structural core of Burj Khalifa. This design helps to reduce the wind forces on the tower, as well as to keep the structure simple and foster constructability. The structural system can be described as a “buttressed core”, and consists of high performance concrete wall construction. Each of the wings buttress the others via a six-sided central core, or hexagonal hub. This central core provides the torsional resistance of the structure, similar to a closed pipe or axle. Corridor walls extend from the central core to near the end of each wing, terminating in thickened hammer head walls. These corridor walls and hammerhead walls behave similar to the webs and flanges of a beam to resist the wind shears and moments. Perimeter columns and flat plate floor construction complete the system.

Spire:  The crowning touch of Burj Khalifa is its telescopic spire comprised of more than 4,000 tons of structural steel. The spire was constructed from inside the building and jacked to its full height of over 200 meters (700 feet) using a hydraulic pump. In addition to securing Burj Khalifa's place as the world's tallest structure, the spire is integral to the overall design, creating a sense of completion for the landmark. The spire also houses communications equipment.

Installing processes of spire

Podium: The podium provides a base anchoring the tower to the ground, allowing on grade access from three different sides to three different levels of the building. Fully glazed entry pavilions constructed with a suspended cable-net structure provide separate entries for the Corporate Suites at B1 and Concourse Levels, the Burj Dubai residences at Ground Level and the Armani Hotel at Level 1.

Mechanical Floors: Seven double stored height mechanical floors house the equipment that brings Burj Khalifa to life. Distributed around every 30 storey, the mechanical floors house the electrical sub-stations, water tanks and pumps, air-handling units etc, that are essential for the operation of the tower and the comfort of its occupants.

Elevators & Lifts: Burj Khalifa will be home to 57 elevators and 8 escalators. The building service/fireman's elevator will have a capacity of 5,500 kg and will be the world's tallest service elevator.
Burj Dubai will be the first mega-high rise in which certain elevators will be programmed to permit controlled evacuation for certain fire or security events. Burj Dubai's Observatory elevators are double deck cabs with a capacity for 12-14 people per cab. Traveling at 10 metres per second, they will have the world's longest travel distance from lowest to highest stop.

Mechanical, Electrical & Plumbing: To achieve the greatest efficiencies, the mechanical, electrical and plumbing services for Burj Dubai were developed in coordination during the design phase with cooperation of the architect, structural engineer and other consultant.

•  The tower's water system supplies an average of 946,000 litres (250,000 gallons) of water daily.
• At peak cooling, Burj Dubai will require about 10,000 tons of cooling, equal to the cooling capacity provided by about 10,000 tons of melting ice.
• Dubai's hot, humid climate combined with the building's cooling requirements creates a significant amount of condensation. This water is collected and drained in a separate piping system to a holding tank in the basement car park. 
•  The condensate collection system provides about 15 million gallons of supplement water per year, equal to about 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
•  The tower's peak electrical demand is 36mW, equal to about 360,000 100 Watt bulbs operating simultaneously. 
  
  Construction Timeline:
  January 2004  -  Excavation started
  February 2004  -  Piling started
  March 2005  -  Superstructure started
  June 2006  -  Level 50 reached
  January 2007  -  Level 100 reached
  March 2007  -  Level 110 reached
  April 2007  -  Level 120 reached
  May 2007  -  Level 130 reached
  July 2007  -  Level 141 reached - world's tallest building
  September 2007  -  Level 150 reached - world's tallest free-standing structure
  April 2008  -  Level 160 reached - world's tallest man-made structure
  January 2009  -  Completion of spire - Burj Dubai tops out
  September 2009  -  Exterior cladding competed
  January 2010  -  Official launch ceremony 
  
  

  

  ***burj khalifa opening ceremony***