Burj Khalifa is the world’s tallest building and was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill architects, who have been bestowed with the “Global Icon” award. The design of the high-performance building makes use of cutting edge technology and carries cultural and historical influences. The architects faced several challenges when building a tower of this height such as wind, heat, humidity, gravity and earthquake forces.
The essay looks at the advanced technical and engineering skills used to create Burj Khalifa and how a skyscrapers’ design should respect cultural values and make the best use of space utilities and add to the functionality. The paper discourses the role of Burj Khalifa as a skyscraper and how it supports the local culture, environment, and identity.
The skyline in the Gulf region Within just a short time span, the Gulf region has developed and evolved at a rapid pace. The bleak skyline with no high-rise buildings has turned into an exciting one with one of the tallest buildings in the world, the Burj Khalifa. It is essential to note that Dubai first got access to electricity in just 1952 and Burj Khalifa got completed by 2010. Today, the city proudly claims to have the tallest building in the world, at 2,716 feet (Boake 57).This is a landmark achievement considering that the architectural accomplishments have been dominated by the West in the past centuries. The completion of Dubai World Trade, National Commercial Bank and now Burj Khalifa marks the beginning of the age of skyscrapers in the Gulf. Burj Khalifa certainly triumphs as a leader among skyscrapers, with 160 storeys. There is a mosque at the 158th floor, and this makes it the highest place of worries in the world. Moreover, if the weather is clear, one can see the Iran across the Person Gull (Melvin 2010). Burj Khalifa is listed among the world famous landmarks such as Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower. Google Maps has 360-degree panoramic images of the world’s tallest skyscraper, and it provides an immersive experience to the users online. The 360-degree view captures the exteriors and interiors of Burj Khalifa, offers breathtaking views 9A 360-Degree View of Burj Khalifa 2013).
Challenges for the team of architects and engineers The new era of the tall buildings, enabled by ever-larger budgets, have become highly competitive. The unusual climate in the Gulf and extraordinarily high levels of humidity plus no extremely elevated levels of humidity certainly make the conditions challenging for the architects. The dust in the atmosphere tends to stick to the glazed exteriors because of the difference between the temperature outside and the air-conditioned interiors. Moreover, lack of fresh water makes it difficult and expensive to clean the surfaces of buildings. There are hundreds of skyscrapers completed in the Gulf in the last few decades, and they have been grouped under the categories of stars, the fabric and the visionary as stated by Boake (61). One of the most vital challenges with the Burj Khalifa is its construction as it required lifting structural materials to great heights that have never been reached before. After all, concrete had never been pumped to such a height before. Thus, a system of specially designed pumps took care of concrete mixtures with high-compressive-strength. As the temperatures were unbearably high during the daytime, the pouring was done at night. The concrete was transferred under the cool temperature of shards of ice. The steel architectural spires, 600ft in height required specialized prefabrication within the top floors. The Burj Khalifa had to do away with its conception of steel skeleton construction because of its height. In place of steel, a flexible but reinforced concrete structure was created by Samsung Engineering and Construction Company from South Korea, and this helped in reducing the fluctuation range to 1.5 meters in the upper part of the skyscraper (Nicolai 309). The form of the tall building was designed inside a wind tunnel. The biggest challenge came from the strong forces that would slash the tall building. A tram of more than 90 architects and engineers refined the shape of the tower to mitigate the forces of the wind. The culturally influenced design and cutting technology enabled the architects to build the tall structure. Another problem for the architects and engineers was the swaying of the tall structure. The unusually tall building would experience unequal wind pressures on either side, or this can clause the building to oscillate. Those movements, if not handled properly can be uncomfortable for the occupants of the buildings. The project saw several innovations in the architecture, urban planning and interior designing of Burj Khalifa (The Tallest Burj Khalifa 2011). Dubai carries aggrieve conditions because of the extremely corrosive ground water. Thus, a rigors setup was required to employ anti-corrosion measures so as to add to the durability of the foundation. The measures taken included making use of special waterproofing systems, the addition of corrosion cover, increasing the concrete cover and using a cathodic protection system (Sheath 2010). A stringent crack control design criteria were followed along with titanium mesh with an impressed current.
The Y-shaped plan
The Y-shaped plan offers a buttresslike strength to the tower, and the spiral design of the placement is based on organic inspiration (Boake 61). The y-shape is a good one for the residential layouts as it offers the maximum amount of perimeter for living spaces and windows. The basic shape of the plan carries a reference to the Islamic archways. The flooring patterns make references to beautiful calligraphy in Arabic (The Tallest Burj Khalifa 2011). The Y-shaped floor plan offers maximum views of the Arabian Gulf. There are green spaces, water features and boulevards at the ground level, the skyscraper. The overall design of the tallest tower in the world was inspired by the geometries of a regional desert flower and embodies Islamic architecture (Burj Khalifa 2016). The tower is made of reinforced concrete and covered with cladding. The upward spiraling pattern and a buttressed central core add to its strength and stability. The central core emerges as a spire at the pinnacle of the building. There are refuge doors in Burj Khalifa at 25 to 30 story intervals that make it fire resistant. The reinforced concrete structure make it stronger than steel. The y-shaped design has been sued purposely to lower the wind forces on the tower. The design keeps the structure of the skyscraper simple and is described as a buttressed core. Each wing carries its own high-performance concrete perimeter columns and corridor walls that buttress the others via a six-sided hexagonal central core. The arrangement makes the building very stiff and stable torsionally and laterally (Sheath 2010).
The buttressed core The engineering team came up with a new concept of buttressed base for Burj Khalifa in a Y-shaped plan. Under the dosing, the core of the building is surrounded by three wings that act as a buttress. A series of walls have been coordinated with structural steel at the higher stories of the spire (The Tallest Burj Khalifa 2011). A sequence of reinforced concrete shear walls provide resistance to the wind and the seismic conditions. Reinforced slabs made of concrete provide a high resistance to fire. If one looks at the central hexagonal core that offers the torsional resistance, the structure looks similar to an axle or a closed tube. The columns can participate in the lateral load resistance because of the outriggers at the mechanical floors. Thus, the complete volume of the vertical concrete is used to support both gravity and lateral loads. Local aggregates were used for the concrete mix design (Sheath 2010). The size and thickness of those columns were fine tuned to lower the effect of creep and shrinkage on the individual elements that composed the structure. The size has been made such that the stress of the self-weight gravity on the perimeter columns match the stress on the walls of the interior corridors. The five sets of outriggers are spread across the building. Thus, it is observed that flyash has been of paramount importune to enhance the quality of the concrete, giving it high straights and an excellent chemical strength for a long term durability.The foundation of the building Burj Khalifa Foundation relied on the pile-supported raft, which is solid and 3.7 mt thick and reinforced with the use of 50 Mpa self-compacting concrete. There were four different pouring done to create the raft in three wings and the central core. More than 12. 500 m3 volume of concrete was used and a 24 hour period was required for each pour. Reinforcement was done at a spacing of 300 mm. 192 bored cast-in-place piles add support to the raft tower foundation. The piles are about 43 mt long and 1.5 mt in diameter, carrying a design capacity of 3000 tons each. The load test for those piles supports more than 6000 tons. Tremie method was used to place the self-compacting concrete with the help of polymer slurry (Sheath 2010). The foundation of the building is made of a thick and reinforced concrete am which is supported by piles. The upper structure of spire is made of structured steel (The Tallest Burj Khalifa 2011).
The cooling plan There are several features incorporated in the building to conserve energy and keep out the heat and humidity of the desert. The district-wide cooling plan is a large system that harvests the condensed water on the chilled pipes and is able to extract thousands of gallons of clean water for the humid environment of Dubai (The Tallest Burj Khalifa 2011). The tall buildings in hot places pose the problem of air pressure issues as the cooler air, tending to be heavier than the warm air outside and drops down. The issue has been dealt with by making air locks at certain locations and compartmentalizing the building vertically. Moreover, the air sourced from the top of the building keeps the building ventilated and cooler, thus lowering energy consumptions for air conditioning (The Tallest Burj Khalifa 2011). The low emissivity glass provides enhanced thermal insulation to the building agent the high temperature of Dubai (The Tallest Burj Khalifa 2011). The exterior of the building has been especially designed to withstand the extreme temperatures of the desert. The high-performance and glazed surface of the façade incorporates textured stainless steel and aluminum. The polished vertical tubular steel annotates the height and slenderness of Burj Khalifa (The Tallest Burj Khalifa 2011).
Minimizing wind forces Burj Khalifa is setting new records for height because of the advanced wind engineering, concrete pumping, and elevator technologies. Its design development has left many lessons learned and thus, make well-informed decisions for other similar projects. More than 40 wind-tunnel tests were carried on in the Burj Khalifa. Temporary conditions were set during the construction stage to carry on the tests. A buttered core enables the efficient and economic build out of the skyscraper. As the building rises, a setback occurs at the end of each wing and those setbacks travel upwards. Those setbacks decrease the mass of the tower as they move upwards and taper as the building forges upwards and reaches higher and higher (The Tallest Burj Khalifa 2011). The shape minimizes any wind tunnels created and their forces. Each tier of the building is incorporated into a spiral stepping pattern that goes up the structure. The spiral stepping in the building and the towers’ grid align the columns above with walls so as to make a smooth load path. The advantage of such stepping and shape confuses the wind, and the vortices of the wind do not get time or place to get organized because, at each step, the wind force comes across a different shape of the building. An extensive wind tunnel testing was done on the design of Burj Khalifa so that it can resist high-velocity winds and minimize any vibrations. As a sky sourcing cooling system, maximizes ambient air and pulls back cooler air from the top of the building and forces it down to keep the entire structure cool (Burj Khalifa: Raising the Bar 2010). The tower’s width gets condensed so as to mitigate wind’s impact.Use of Fly ash Technical reasons were behind the decisions to use fly ash in the foundation of Burj Khalifa. The high temperatures and aggressive weather conditions meant that the concrete should be able to resist the chloride and sulfate attack and be as impermeable as possible. The mixing of fly ash in the concrete makes it control the temperatures and prevent cracking (Sheath 2010). Fly ash raises the cementitious compounds in a mixture and lowers its demand for water. Any potential bleed channel’s get filled up by the spherical particles of the Fly ash. This results in a reduction of permeability in concrete and increases its density. Because of the higher aluminate content in Flyash, the chlorides can easily bind toy it (Sheath 2010). Moreover, the lower permeability discourages the penetration by chlorides. Fly ash is a residue that is left behind after the combustion of pulverized coal. It is collected in silos for use in concrete as dry or moistened. It works as a highly efficient cement extender. It lubricates the concrete making it easier to handle and pump. As it is ultrafine, it can easily fill up fine capillaries that are occupied by water (Sheath 2010). Moreover, the lower ratio of water and cement enhances its durability and densifies its microstructure. The flyash further increases the strength and performance of concrete because of its pozzolanic reaction with lime by forming hydrates that fill the gaps within the concrete. This raises the strength of the concrete and lowers its permeability.Architecture of Skyscrapers Architecture is a balance between professionalism and aesthetics. It has to make possibility a responsible one and make responsibility out of the possible (Melvin 2010).The tall buildings challenge this notion and take it to extreme ends. The definition of new contemporary architecture is characterized by new monumentality and marks am the extraordinary shift from the paradigm of industrial aesthetics to a more liberated architecture. There was a new kind of architecture that gained monumentality with its mixed media character as asserted by Nicolai (300).Monumentality carries a close related to the idea of “Bigness.” Skyscrapers require a detailed and immense planning excuse of their massive bulk and soaring heights. Today, skyscrapers are coming up in many parts of the world, and a surge in skyscraper construction has been seen in the past few decades. An insensitive design in tall buildings can make the city spaces feel meaningless and unpleasant. Architects and urban designers need to care about human experiences of the city and its living spaces. Unlike other visual arts such as painting, dance or music, tall buildings get seen by all and thus must appeal to the masses (Al-Kodmany et al. 2012). They must include cultural cues in the design of skyscrapers so as to add to its appeal and get wider recognition by the masses.
Burj Khalifa in cultural, social and environmental context
Burj Khalifa, the former Burj Dubai, is a place where one can enjoy the sky. The tallest skyscraper is now a magnificent centerpiece of Downtown Dubai and a world-class destination. The new urban masterpiece with its telescope-like structure and the needle peak, takes a leading position among the famous skyscrapers in the world (Nicolai 306). One cannot imagine Dubai without Burj Khalifa. Dubai’s cityscape with Burj reminds one of the most popular science-fiction cityscapes. The building is the most advanced in the first half of the 20th century regarding architectural history (Nicolai 308). The design of Burj Khalifa shows the influences of local culture and can achieve high performance with cutting-edge technology. The skyscraper conations residential units, offices, retail and a Giorgio Armani Hotel (Burj Khalifa 2016). As the tallest working space in the world, the higher floors of Burj Khalifa look like a vision from a stationary spacecraft. Its patterning system is influenced by the Islamic architecture and is designed to serve the global community. The three-winged elements surround the central core. The upward spiraling pattern lowers the mass as the tower rises in height (Burj Khalifa: Raising the Bar 2010). The building can withstand the extreme heat outside during the summer months with a special designed exterior cladding system. There is a structural steel spire that has been specially designed to counter the gravity, seismic activity, and the wind as well as any fatigue created in the structure. The building has been tested for the wind, gravity and seismic loadings based on a three-dimensional model that was made of slabs, raft, piles, concrete walls, link beams and the spire (Sheath 2010).The raft was field tested before its placements.
The aesthetic of buildings is not the only aim of architectural design. However, in a case of skyscrapers, aesthetics become important because of their visual impact from far. Moreover, these buildings are designed to last for a long time (Al-Kodmany et al. 2012). If one looks at Burj Khalifa, it is impossible to resist a sense of awe created, and one cannot help but marvel at the world’s tallest and sustainable building. The tower boasts of the largest condensate recovery systems in the world and the sky-sourced ventilation system keep the building cooler. The super tall Burj Khalifa is a mixed-use building, and the greatest source of inspiration came from a native desert flower that is widely cultivated in Dubai. Traditional Islamic architecture defines the filigree patterns of the building. The three-leaf flower’s structure can be easily seen in Burj Khalifa and the wings provide structural support, helping it withstand the forces of winds (Al-Kodmany et al. 2012). The tower is a part of a five hundred acre complex that holds hotels, lagoons, offices and public space. In a way, this is a high-tech, economic, and social oasis of Dubai (Al-Kodmany et al. 2012). With a water consumption of more than a million liters a day, the Burj certainly seems to be irrepressible where the wart is in a very limited supply. Still, the same number of people will still need water, no matter where they stay, vertically or horizontally (Melvin 2010). It is important to note here that about 20% of the water for consumption comes from the trapping the condensation on the outer skin of the building. Moreover, it is the shape of the building that makes it possible. Still, it is argued that the Burj Khalifa’s design that is inspired by a native plant can be seen only in the floor plans. The rest of Burj Khalifa does not remind one of local culture or relates to Islamic culture. Consequently, the tower does not make a clear connection to Islamic architecture (Al-Kodmany et al. 2012). Another argument states that the exorbitant costs to build Bur Khalifa in a low-density city will find it hard to justify in long terms of time, in a case of a downturn of the world economy. The enormous wealth spent on the tower could have been spent on social and technological projects. To conclude on the design of Burj Khalifa and how it makes good use of space and functionalities, the building and its architecture comes out with flying colors and is a symbol of strong identity in the Gulf region. How well it is able to conform to local culture and environment remains to be seen in the long run.
Works Cited
"A 360-Degree View of Burj Khalifa." Travel & Tourism News (2013)Web.
Al-Kodmany, Kheir, and Mir M. Ali. "skyscrapers and Placemaking: Supporting Local Culture and Identity." ArchNet-IJAR : International Journal of Architectural Research 6.2 (2012): 43. Web.
Boake, Terri Meyer. "The Evolution of Tall Building in the Gulf: From the Sensational to the Sensitive." Architectural Design 85.1 (2015): 54-71. Web.
"Burj Khalifa: Raising the Bar." Middle East Interiors (2010)Web.
"Burj Khalifa." som.com. 2016. Web. 27 April. 2016.
Melvin, Jeremy. On a Clear Day You can See Iran from the Burj Khalifa. 227 Vol. London: EMAP Architecture, 2010. Web.
Nicolai, Bernd. "New Monumentalism in Contemporary Architecture." Anglia 131.2 (2013): 297-313. Web.
Sheath, John. "Fly Ash used in the Construction of the World's Tallest Building." Civil Engineering : Magazine of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering18.7 (2010): 14. Web.
"The Tallest Burj Khalifa." Architecture Update (2011)Web.
