CONSTRUCTION & TECHNOLOGY

Right at the start of 2010, with much fanfare and fireworks, the world's tallest man-made structure was officially opened. The Burj Khalifa was one of the most anticipated, watched and reported on construction projects of all time and its opening is also ranked as the best moment so far, in the tenure of Hyder Consulting's regional managing director Wael Allan.

Samsung C&T has demonstrated its technological edge in the Middle East, particularly in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the Burj Khalifa being one of the most notable examples. Burj Khalifa is the tallest man-made structure in the world, whose construction started midway through 2004 and was officially opened early this year to become the landmark of flourishing Dubai.

When the Burj Khalifa opened in Dubai, it officially became the world's tallest building. Now the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat is calling it one of the best tall buildings for 2010.

The Burj Khalifa, with three others, has bagged the best tall buildings in the world award, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

Burj Khalifa: Jotun supplied 122,000 kilograms of powder coating and 487,000 litres of paint on the world's tallest tower.

More recently, passengers were left stranded between floors after their lift car broke down inside the Burj Khalifa. And, in March this year, British former F1 driver Stirling Moss broke his ankles after falling down an elevator shaft in London.

Johnson Controls has supplied a system to Burj Khalifa to allow developer Emaar Properties to manage security in the tower’s corporate, residential, hotel and public spaces, including nearly 900 residential suites, hundreds of office suites and the observation deck.

But the place with the highest concentration of skyscraper hotels is Dubai. The first, in the Burj Khalifa tower, is fashion designer Georgio Armani's first hotel.

A team of scientists, engineers and financers in Japan have begun work on a project that will make the Burj Khalifa in Dubai look tiny. The team is aiming to build a tower that is 1km tall and has a vertical farm balanced on a floating concrete lilypad. The team believes that by the year 2025 the necessary technology should be ready to start the building process.

"It's a fantastic system. They have utilised the Burj Khalifa to become a very powerful tourism instrument. And I think our Petronas Twin Towers have that potential too," she observed.