The World's Tallest Building

Completed in January of 2010, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai is currently the world’s tallest building. It stands a whopping 2,717 feet above the ground, more than 1,000 feet taller than the former record holder, Taipei 101. The building was designed by the Chicago architectural firm of SOM, which has designed 5 of the world’s ten tallest buildings. The tower returns the world’s tallest crown to the middle east for the first time since the great pyramids.

Structural Design

The tower uses a three lobed buttress design to combat the forces of wind, which is the most important structural concern of tall buildings. This shape makes for an extremely tall and thin structure. So much so that even though the structure is almost twice the height of the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower in Chicago, it encloses only about half the amount of floor space. The layout does make for an efficient wind resistance from any direction, and also gives ample opportunity for window access in the interior layout.
To construct the tower, the designers used an ultra high performance concrete consisting of silica fume and fly ash was throughout the structure. Traditional concrete’s hardness and consistency are measured using what is called a slump test. A tube is filled with fresh, wet concrete, and then the tube is pulled off.

Movement of air and water

Mechanically, the building is a series of 30 story buildings stacked on top of each other. There are seven two to three story mechanical floors distributed throughout the tower. This is done to keep the pressure in the water pipes and the duct sizes reasonable. 250,000 gallons of water flow through the tower every day.
15 million gallons of the annual water usage is supplied by collecting condensate water from the dehumidification process. This collected water is at about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, which is much cooler than what would otherwise come out of the “cold” water faucet. This is because the desalinization process for water in Dubai requires it to travel through the very hot ground, warming it considerably.

Vertical Circulation

The Burj contains 57 elevators to serve the building. Though these elevators are super fast, some of the fastest in the world, their travel distance is held to no more than 500 meters (1640 feet). This restriction keeps the longest non-stop elevator ride under 2 minutes. Typically, there are three sets of stairs on each floor. These stairs are encased in concrete for fire safety, and there are designated areas of refuge located periodically where people can wait for emergency personnel to assist them if required. Walking down the entire height of the building takes about 45 minutes.
The Burj Khalifa represents a major leap forward in tall buildings. It towers above not only the desert where it is located, but above all other buildings on the planet. Where the crown of world’s tallest building is often passed to the next building by a few feet, Burj Khalifa is more than one third higher than the former record holder. For this reason, it promises to be the world’s tallest building for quite some time. As long as man strives to build bigger, taller, and more dramatically, however, no building can be confident in retaining the crown indefinitely.