Burj Khalifa Research Articles

‘I am Burj Khalifa’: Entrepreneurial Urbanism, Toponymic Commodification and the Worlding of Dubai

AbstractThis study explores the cultural politics of renaming the world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai/Khalifa, as a practice of entrepreneurial urbanism. The Burj offers a unique case study that brings urban scholarship on ‘worlding’ into conversation with emerging debates over the commodification of naming rights within critical toponymic studies. We draw upon archival materials and semi‐structured interviews to demonstrate in this article how the spatial politics enacted through the construction of the Burj and the tower's subsequent name change have played a significant role in Dubai's efforts to achieve ‘global city’ status. In doing so, we extend our understanding of the performative power of spatial inscription in reshaping the geographical imaginaries of ‘global’ urbanity.

Urban Images and Imaginaries: Gulf cities through their representations

A falcon lands graciously on a man’s arm in the desert, and the video fades into a bird’s eye view of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. A white sail then occupies the screen, flickering in the wind; the camera zooms out to a glimpse of a man navigating a dhow; another zoom‑out, and in the background appears Burj Al‑Arab, the Dubai luxury hotel whose architectural shape, designed by renowned international firm W. S. Atkins, is meant to echo the sail of a ship. Different video, s...

STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS USED IN VERTICAL CITIES A REVIEW

Smart city mission in India promoted infrastructure development under various parameters like use of smart materials, smart villages, sanitation improvement, sustainable energy and many more. Introducing new vertical cities, iconic structures and use of multi-functional buildings in India is such a step ahead to achieve these parameters into reality. Vertical modern age buildings are already popular worldwide due to its advantages in terms of low consumption of area and multi-functional use. However, these buildings are subjected to intense loading due to wind, earthquake and therefore requires study to withstand safely against these complex forces and to achieve this, structural systems should be given top priority as it plays a vital role. This paper mainly focuses on the review of such structural systems which includes framed tube system, tube in tube system, bundled tube system, diagonalised-rigid system, outrigger system, shear walls, diagrid system which are usually used in high rise buildings, skyscrapers. Further study is done considering case studies of today’s top 5 skyscrapers in the world which are Kingdom tower Jeddah, Burj Khalifa Dubai, Taipei Tower Seoul, Shanghai Tower Shanghai and International Commerce Centre Hong Kong. Concluding remarks are made discussing advantages, disadvantages, comparison and suitability of these structural systems under the Indian context.

The advisability of high-rise construction in the city

In this article there discusses the question of advisability high-rise construction, the reasons for its use, both positive and negative sides of it. On the one hand, a number of authors believe that it is difficult to avoid high-rise construction due to the limited areas in very large cities. On the other hand, a number of other authors draw attention to the problems associated with high-rise construction. The author of the article analyses examples of high-rise construction in several countries (UAE, Dubai "Burj Khalifa"; Japan "Tokyo Sky Tree"; United States of America, "Willis Tower"; Russia "Federation Tower") and proves the advisability of high-rise construction in the city.

Use of Dampers in Vertical cities: Effective Method to Control Seismic Vibrations

Modern high rise buildings, vertical cities, sky scrapers are popular due to its advantages in terms of consuming less foot print area of site; however this vertical development should be verified to safeguard the structure. To achieve this considering various parameters like structural systems, seismic vibration controlling systems and maintaining overall ductility of the structure are most important. This paper mainly reviews and discusses one of such method to control seismic vibrations i.e. use of dampers. Dampers of various types and mechanisms are studied. Case studies of top 5 skyscrapers in the world are discussed which includes Jeddah Tower, Burj Khalifa, Taipai tower, Shanghai Tower and International Commerce Centre. Concluding remarks are made with possible use of these dampers considering their suitability and requirement under various circumstances.

Highlighting the Build: Using Lighting to Showcase the Sydney Opera House

Highlighting the Build: Using Lighting to Showcase the Sydney Opera House

The harmony between architectural forms and structural

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 of aerodynamic shaping and wind engineering played a major role in the architectural massing and design of this multi-use tower, where mitigating and taming the dynamic wind effects was one of the most important design criteria set forth at the onset of the project design. This paper provides brief description of the tower structural systems, focuses on the key issues considered in construction planning of the key structural components and briefly outlines the execution of one of the most comprehensive architectural forms and structural in tall buildings.

‘Is this the tallest building in the world?’ A posthuman approach to ethical dilemmas in young children’s learning projects

In this article, I explore alternative ways of understanding ethics in preschool. In this, I draw on a posthumanist understanding of ethical concerns as entangled intra-actions of the world, rather than as a human affair. The examined data are part of an ongoing preschool project called ‘Children’s relations to the city’, in which children begin to investigate tall buildings in the immediate vicinity of the preschool and then turn their attention to other larger and more famous buildings in the world, such as Burj Khalifa, the World Trade Centre and Tapei 101. At first, the children seem to be interested in mathematics and science and collaboratively measure and compare the towers shown on pictures. The project then changes gear, and the children ask questions about the living conditions in faraway countries. This transfers the project from the local preschool to a global world in which complex ethical dilemmas emerge. The article discusses the ethics that can emerge when understanding children’s play and learning in preschool as always and already ethical and entangled with a more-than-human global world.

A Survey of Wall Climbing Robots: Recent Advances and Challenges

In recent decades, skyscrapers, as represented by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, have been built due to the improvements of construction technologies. Even in such newfangled skyscrapers, the façades are generally cleaned by humans. Wall climbing robots, which are capable of climbing up vertical surfaces, ceilings and roofs, are expected to replace the manual workforce in façade cleaning works, which is both hazardous and laborious work. Such tasks require these robotic platforms to possess high levels of adaptability and flexibility. This paper presents a detailed review of wall climbing robots categorizing them into six distinct classes based on the adhesive mechanism that they use. This paper concludes by expanding beyond adhesive mechanisms by discussing a set of desirable design attributes of an ideal glass façade cleaning robot towards facilitating targeted future research with clear technical goals and well-defined design trade-off boundaries.

The Design and Construction of the World’s Tallest Building: The Burj Khalifa, Dubai

The design of the Burj Khalifa represents a truly collaborative effort between all members of the design team. A tower of such height required interaction and input from all parties to create a system and form that responds efficiently to wind and gravity loads, while also facilitating construction and enhancing building function. This paper will focus on the challenges faced by the design team, as well as the lessons learned during the design and construction phases, and how they can be applied to the next generation of supertall buildings.

Tall Buildings and Elevators: A Review of Recent Technological Advances

Efficient vertical mobility is a critical component of tall building development and construction. This paper investigates recent advances in elevator technology and examines their impact on tall building development. It maps out, organizes, and collates complex and scattered information on multiple aspects of elevator design, and presents them in an accessible and non-technical discourse. Importantly, the paper contextualizes recent technological innovations by examining their implementations in recent major projects including One World Trade Center in New York; Shanghai Tower in Shanghai; Burj Khalifa in Dubai; Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; and the green retrofit project of the Empire State Building in New York. Further, the paper discusses future vertical transportation models including a vertical subway concept, a space lift, and electromagnetic levitation technology. As these new technological advancements in elevator design empower architects to create new forms and shapes of large-scale, mixed-use developments, this paper concludes by highlighting the need for interdisciplinary research in incorporating elevators in skyscrapers.

Near-Real-Time Hybrid System Identification Framework for Civil Structures with Application to Burj Khalifa

AbstractThis study proposes a near-real-time hybrid framework for system identification (SI) of structures using data from structural health monitoring systems. To account for both stationary/weakly nonstationary response under normal conditions (e.g., extratropical winds and/or ambient excitations) and transient/highly nonstationary response under transient events (e.g., earthquakes, windstorms, or time-varying traffic loadings), a hybrid framework is introduced by integrating a new nonstationary SI scheme based on wavelets in tandem with transformed singular value decomposition, and a robust stationary SI scheme called covariance-driven stochastic subspace identification. Extensive numerical simulations as well as analysis of full-scale data are conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the scheme. To facilitate expeditious and convenient utilization of this framework in a practical application, a web-enabled approach and its workflow concerning measurements of the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, ar...

The Evolution of Tall Building in the Gulf: From the Sensational to the Sensitive

In just 35 years the built environment in the Gulf region has evolved so rapidly that it has gone from having no high‐rise buildings to having the world's tallest building — SOM's Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Terri Meyer Boake, a professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario and specialist in steel construction and skyscraper design, provides an overview of the fast‐paced development of this building typology.

The BABEL Tower

The idea of reaching the heavens has captivated humans throughout the ages. Rockets have proved extremely inefficient in overcoming this challenge and constructing a “Centrifugally Extended Carbon Nano-Tube Tether Space Elevator” (CECNTTSE) presents unsolved technological challenges. The authors conclude that to efficiently achieve the goal of unrestricted movement away from Earth’s gravitational pull; both the current state of the art and the proposed method for a Space Elevator should be reinvented. Therefore, the authors propose the “Buoyant Advanced Building Elevator Lightweight” (BABEL) Tower, a new concept of “a floating tower” capable of reaching up to the Karman Line and beyond. While providing the structural support to a sub-orbital elevator and offering a better launching platform for space vehicles, with built-in rocket engines, directed specifically to LEO but also beyond. Using a (hybrid) LTA and electromagnetically driven elevator car, this super-tall tower could lift tremendous amounts of cargo (and passengers) while avoiding problems associated with space elevators, and could be more feasible in a shorter time. This concept combines characteristics of the Skylon Tower (of London) and the Burj Khalifa (of Dubai) into a flared tensegrity structure with buoyant platforms, “linked” every 2.5 km and tethered to the ground. This anchor-mooring system will support a beam-stalk like buoyant shaft. The estimated aspect ratio (2.5:100) for each wing of its “Y-shaped footprint” will be 2500 meters wide at sea level. The platforms and the shaft “must be built” following a modular principle. Its buoyancy will be generated using a perfect vacuum inside its cells, thus becoming; lighter than air, free from the scarce availability of helium, and safe from hydrogen’s reactiveness. Because its foundations would have to resist the up-thrusting forces that the buoyant structure will produce (instead of the compressive forces caused by weight), the engineering of this buoyant tower is structurally comparable to a maritime spar platform for deep-water oil-extraction. This concept will have a high potential efficiency in reducing the cost per kilogram to be in transit to orbital insertion. In providing an infrastructure of planetary scale, this tower could provide the requisite platforms for other uses such as astronomical observation, clean solar energy distribution (by laser beaming), space tourism, telecommunications, research laboratories, aerosols dispersion, carbon and methane sequestration, airship hub terminals, etc.

New Monumentalism in Contemporary Architecture

This essay offers an overview of different conceptions of monumentalism in twentieth- and twenty-first-century architecture. It demonstrates in how much a new radical “Bigness” has become one of the central features of the new globalized architecture over the last two decades. Examining prime examples of contemporary architectural monumentalism, such as Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren’s CCTV-Tower and the Burj Khalifa (former Burj Dubai), as well as exploring examples of the new, worldwide emerging museum architecture, this essay detects a remarkable shift in architectural monumentalism from the paradigm of industrial aesthetics of the first six decades of the twentieth century towards a more liberated, joyful and bizarre architecture that started in the 1970s with postmodern and super-structure conceptions and which reached its climax in the work of Rem Koolhaas after 1990.

Re-assessment of foundation settlements for the Burj Khalifa, Dubai

This paper deals with the re-assessment of foundation settlements for the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai. The foundation system for the tower is a piled raft, founded on deep deposits of calcareous rocks. Two computer programs, Geotechnical Analysis of Raft with Piles (GARP) and Non-linear Analysis of Piled Rafts (NAPRA) have been used for the settlement analyses, and the paper outlines the procedure adopted to re-assess the foundation settlements based on a careful interpretation of load tests on trial piles in which the interaction effects of the pile test set-up are allowed for. The paper then examines the influence of a series of factors on the computed settlements. In order to obtain reasonable estimates of differential settlements within the system, it is found desirable to incorporate the effects of the superstructure stiffness which act to increase the stiffness of the overall foundation system. Values of average and differential settlements for the piled raft calculated with GARP and NAPRA were found to be in reasonable agreement with measured data on settlements taken near the end of construction of the tower.

Higher and Higher: The Evolution of the Buttressed Core

The development of the buttressed core structural system led to a paradigm shift in tall building design that brought a dramatic increase in the height of buildings. In the 32 years between the completion of 1 World Trade Center (1972) and Taipei 101 (2004), there was only a 22 percent increase in the height of the world’s tallest building. In 2010, the Burj Khalifa claimed the title at 828 m, eclipsing Taipei 101 by more than 60 percent. With its innovative buttressed core, the tower represents a major leap in structural design, elicited by a change in the approach to the tall building problem through an examination of scale.

ChemInform Abstract: Deleterious Reactions of Aggregate with Alkalis in Concrete

AbstractReview: 595 refs.

Spectre of the Past, Vision of the Future – Ritual, Reflexivity and the Hope for Renewal in Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s Climate Change Communication Film "Home"

Spectre of the Past, Vision of the Future – Ritual, Reflexivity and the Hope for Renewal in Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s Climate Change Communication Film "Home"

SmartSync: An Integrated Real-Time Structural Health Monitoring and Structural Identification System for Tall Buildings

This study introduces a unique prototype system for structural health monitoring (SHM), SmartSync, which uses the building’s existing Internet backbone as a system of virtual instrumentation cables to permit modular and largely plug-and-play deployments. Within this framework, data streams from distributed heterogeneous sensors are pushed through network interfaces in real time and seamlessly synchronized and aggregated by a centralized server, which performs basic data acquisition, event triggering, and database management while also providing an interface for data visualization and analysis that can be securely accessed. The system enables a scalable approach to monitoring tall and complex structures that can readily interface a variety of sensors and data formats (analog and digital) and can even accommodate variable sampling rates. This study overviews the SmartSync system, its installation/operation in the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, and proof-of-concept in triggering under dual excitations (wind and earthquake).