Tallest Skyscraper in the world almost completed

[Howie]

The Burj Dubai tower, the tallest skyscraper in the world, is about to be completed. To celebrate it, David Hobcote has taken a series of amazing high resolution pictures from the air which give an exact impression of the breathtaking, massive scale of this building. Inside, it looks like a set from Blade Runner or the interior of the Death Star.

Check out more of the high resolution pics here :
http://gizmodo.com/5038788/tallest-skys ... ies-belief

[frank1]

That's nuts! Just a quick question, how do they get the last crane down from that height?

[Wayno]

That's nuts! Just a quick question, how do they get the last crane down from that height?

they build a taller one of course...

[Norman]

Imagine that in Adelaide

[Will409]

Imagine running up the staircase of that! For a fat bloke like myself, that would certainly remove a few weight issues.

[Norman]

Imagine running up the staircase of that! For a fat bloke like myself, that would certainly remove a few weight issues.

Just make it an extended Gunzel Dash

[Omicron]

LIke much (most?) of Dubai, I find it gaudy, ostentatious, outdated and out-of-place.

[mattblack]

In case of fire, please use parachutes provided!

How long would it take to winch materials up from the bottom and how long would to spool of cable have to be on those cranes?

[Shuz]

It looks much better than I thought it would turn out. The glass is just stunning!

[rev]

I like it, although I think something this grand/large, should have waited till the city was a little more developed. Look at all the empty land sitting around between pockets of towers. Looks ridiculous.
And to think that 25% of the worlds total construction cranes are in Dubai.
Is the rate of development even sustainable over there?
This is one massive tower, if it was to be built in Australia or America or Europe, it would eat up a lot of demand for floor space for quite some time you would think. But in Dubai, which has a tiny population, they just keep building more and more, and not small towers, but monstrous things.
Are they going for a case of "build it and they will come"?

[frank1]

I like it, although I think something this grand/large, should have waited till the city was a little more developed. Look at all the empty land sitting around between pockets of towers. Looks ridiculous.
And to think that 25% of the worlds total construction cranes are in Dubai.
Is the rate of development even sustainable over there?
This is one massive tower, if it was to be built in Australia or America or Europe, it would eat up a lot of demand for floor space for quite some time you would think. But in Dubai, which has a tiny population, they just keep building more and more, and not small towers, but monstrous things.
Are they going for a case of "build it and they will come"?

I think it has worked so far. Dubai is one of the world focal points due to its wealth and is quickly becoming one of the biggest centres for commerce and buisness. I think as long as the world still demands oil, Dubai will continue to expand, attract people/buisness and build rediculous projects because they can.

[Joely]

I like it, although I think something this grand/large, should have waited till the city was a little more developed. Look at all the empty land sitting around between pockets of towers. Looks ridiculous.
And to think that 25% of the worlds total construction cranes are in Dubai.
Is the rate of development even sustainable over there?
This is one massive tower, if it was to be built in Australia or America or Europe, it would eat up a lot of demand for floor space for quite some time you would think. But in Dubai, which has a tiny population, they just keep building more and more, and not small towers, but monstrous things.
Are they going for a case of "build it and they will come"?

Yes that's precisely what they're doing. They know that oil cannot sustain their economy forever, so they're building all these amazing and different (and ridiculous) things so once the oil runs out, they have large tourism industry to sustain their economy and keep it stable. Back to the Burj, I think this tower is both incredibly amazing and hideously gaudy at the same time. Anyone agree?

[Shuz]

In 2006, Dubai had 1,422,000 people, up from 1,130,000 just a year before in 2005. That's a growth rate of 292,000 people in just one year or 25.84%*

If Dubai continued to grow at this rate until 2010 -
2007 - 1.789m
2008 - 2.259m
2009 - 2.713m
2010 - 3.175m

I'd say they're well on their way of becoming a city of 15 million people - that's their target. But I don't know by which year.

* http://uaeinteract.com/news/default.asp?ID=134