Burj Khalifa known as Burj Dubai before its inauguration, is a megatall skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
It is the tallest building in the world standing at 828 meters (2,716.5 feet).
Not just the tallest building, the Burj’s height surpassed anything ever built by man from the ground up.
Burj Khalifa holds the world record for highest number of stories with 163 stories.
Burj Khalifa holds the world record for the highest habitable floor at 160 stories.
Burj Level 153 of Burj Khalifa is the highest occupied floor in the world.
Construction of Burj Khalifa began in 2004, with the exterior completed in 2009. The primary structure is reinforced concrete. The building opened in 2010, as part of the new development called Downtown Dubai.
It was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merill (SOM) an American architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm.
The Burj Khalifa’s design embodies the lyrical and well-proportioned structure of the Hymenocallis or Spider Lily, a regional desert flower that inspired architect Adrian Smith’s vision of the iconic tower.
Burj Khalifa comprises a record-breaking 330,000 cubic meters (11.6 million cubic feet) of concrete; 39,000 m/t of reinforced steel; 103,000 square meters (1.1 million square feet) of glass; and, 15,500 square meters (166,800 square feet) of embossed stainless steel. It took 22 million man hours to build the tower.
More than 12,000 people worked on-site at any given time during the building of Burj Khalifa.
A truly mixed-use tower, Burj Khalifa comprises 171,870 square meters (1.85 million square feet) of residential space, and 27,870 square meters (300,000 square feet) of office space, in addition to the Armani Hotel Dubai and the Armani Residences. The tower also features lounges, health and wellness facilities, four pools and two observation decks.
Burj Khalifa’s three primary entrances – Armani Hotel, Residence and Corporate Suites – were designed to be on different levels to ensure smooth-flowing traffic at all times.
The lobby of The Residence at Burj Khalifa is dominated by artist Jaume Plensa’s eponymous sculpture ‘World Voices‘. The piece incorporates 196 cymbals. Water dropping gently from the ceiling strikes the cymbals and creates a chorus of distinct tones that represent the voices of people worldwide.
The Burj Khalifa contains nearly 1,000 apartments from floors 12 to 108.The building has a total of 2,909 stairs, meaning those on the upper floors would have to climb the bulk of those just to get home if the lifts were out of action.
The interiors of The Residence at Burj Khalifa are inspired by Middle Eastern culture. Curves and arcs that are representative of the strokes in Arabic calligraphy as well as the slopes of sand dunes can be seen in the flooring, carpets and ceilings.
Soaring high at 555 meters (1,821 feet), At the Top, Burj Khalifa SKY is fittingly Dubai’s most iconic destination.It is highest outdoor observatory in the world, spread across levels 148 and 125 of Burj Khalifa.The view is amazing.
Aside from a stunning view of the city of Dubai, the Observation Decks of Burj Khalifa also offers a unique aerial view of The Dubai Fountain.
Burj Khalifa is home to the world’s first Armani Hotel, which opened its doors on April 27, 2010. All aspects of the luxury hotel bear the signature markings of Giorgio Armani, from the room designs to the fabrics and furnishings selected.
Burj Khalifa has a total of 57 elevators and 8 escalators. Among them are the world’s tallest service elevator, which has a capacity of 5.500 kg and the Observatory elevators, which are double deck cabs that travel at 10 m/s.
At.mosphere is the world’s highest restaurant at 441.3 meters (1,447 feet) (122nd floor).The interiors of At.mosphere were designed by New York-based Adam Tihany. The restaurant’s three distinct parts occupy the entire floor, providing panoramic views of Dubai and the desert and sea beyond.
The Burj Khalifa is also intending to host the world’s highest nightclub on the 143rd floor.
A little known fact is that Burj Khalifa features the world’s highest library on Level 123 of The Residences.
The Burj Khalifa has the second highest swimming pool in the world, at the 76th floor.
Burj Khalifa is home to the commissioned works of over 85 artists from around the world. The artworks vary from impressionism to abstract works, but they all reveal an Arabic cultural context.
The common areas of Burj Khalifa all have a bespoke fragrance that was selected from among 18 aromas.The fragrance with the materials in each space for a subtly different experience.
The exterior of the Burj Khalifa has 26,000 glass panels, designed by 300 Chinese cladding experts who had to ensure that the exterior would withstand the high heat of the summer in Dubai.
Burj Khalifa’s lighting perfectly complements the character of the building as a simple and elegant structure.The facade is lit by a series of stroboscopes, that can be individually programmed to chase up the tower or sparkle in a pattern or at random.
The tower’s landscaped areas are divided into 3 distinct sections, for the residences, the offices and the hotel. The landscape design comprises a palm court, six water features, a lake-side promenade, forest groves, a play area and terrace gardens.
On a foggy morning, when a thick layer of fog settles over the city of Dubai, the view from Burj Khalifa’s Observation Decks is something to behold. It appears as though you are standing above the clouds.
Burj Khalifa has been called a ‘vertical city‘ and the name couldn’t be more apt. Given its magnitude and mixed-use facilities, it holds in the region of 10,000 people at any given point in time and maximum occupancy is 35,000 people.
Every year Burj Khalifa hosts a New Year’s Eve Gala in Downtown Dubai. The event is one of Dubai’s most anticipated with light and fireworks shows. The night sees more than 1 million people in attendance and is telecast live to over 2 billion people around the world.
One of the greatest images of modern time is a 360-degree gigapan picture of Dubai taken from the tip of Burj Khalifa’s spire. It was taken to mark the second edition of the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Photography Award (HIPA).
Burj Khalifa entered record books when Alain Robert, aka ‘French Spiderman‘, scaled the tower in just over 6 hours in March 2011.
Skydive Dubai-sponsored Soul Flyers World Champions Fred Fugen and Vince Reffet took the first leap off Burj Khalifa in April 2014, claiming the new Guinness World Record title of the ‘Highest BASE Jump from the Tallest Building’.
If you were to take all the concrete used in Burj Khalifa and lay a sidewalk, it would be 2,065 kilometers (1,283 miles) long.
The concrete used for Burj Khalifa is equivalent to the weight of 100,000 elephants.
Burj Khalifa’s curtain wall is the equivalent of 17 soccer fields or 25 American football fields.
There are more than 17,000 doors in Burj Khalifa.
The ambient temperature at the tip of Burj Khalifa is 6 degrees cooler than the temperature at ground level.
Burj Khalifa featured in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, the fourth installment of the Mission Impossible series, with a hair-raising stunt sequence by Tom Cruise. The stunt scene was later parodied in the popular animated TV series The Simpsons.