When considering the relationship between architecture and economy, the physical attributes and architectural aspects of Burj Khalifa are less important than the way in which the building was part of a comprehensive strategy aimed at establishing Dubai as a major city capable of compeering a global scale (Aldred 204). The extent of media attention garnered by the Burj Khalifa and the appearance of the building in films from Bollywood to Hollywood has contributed to promoting Dubai across the worlds. Unlike the exchange value of International City which establishes by the resale through “flipping” apartment units and rental retunes, the Burj Khalifa has enhanced Dubai status in the region and beyond.
Perhaps the most interesting aspects of the relation between Burj Khalif and the economy of Dubai is the naming, or rather the re-naming of the building. The building was known as the Burj Dubai through the design, sales and construction phases, but during the opening celebration on January 4, 2010, it was Sheikh Khalif bin Zayed, who happens to be the president of the United Arab Emirates and the designated Ruler of the city of Abu Dhabi. The change of the name of a building that played such an important role in Dubai aspirations to attain global brand recognition was significant, and the timing raised questions. A few weeks before the opening, it was reported that Abu Dhabi had provided the Dubai government USD 10 billion to settle a portion of the substantial debt accumulated during the years characterized by excess.
History of Project
Dubai experienced tremendous growth and financial success during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, evolving from a small trading port to the business and tourism capital of the Middle East Gulf Region. At the height of the city’s economic explosion, Dubai-based real estate developer Emaar Properties envisioned a super tall tower that would become the centerpiece of new downtown Dubai. In 2003 as part of competition, Emaar hired Skidmore, Owings and Merril to design what would become the world’s tallest building --the Burj Khalif. The construction of the Tower began in January 2004, with its official opening occurring on January 4, 202 (Ahmad 39). Today, the tower tops all three categories designated by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat as defined the tallest building in the world, eclipsing the previous height record-holder by 319 meters.
Apart from being the tallest building in the world, the master plan for Burj Khalif responds to the global movement toward compact, livable urban areas. Downtown Dubai sought to create a new city center addressing issues of trade, transportation tourism, industry, and finance in response to the city’s economic boom. The Burj Khalif stand in the center of this new downtown community, spurring borrowing development and operating in similar fashion to a small vertical city. The project consisted of the super tall tower with an integrated podium structure, and an ancillary 12-story official building and four-story pool annex, which complemented the Tower at its base and defined plaza spaces on the ground. At ground level, the “Y” shaped plan allows for each use to have its distance entry, with paving, landscaping, and fountains to create an individual experience. The tower’s mixed use program, consisting of the hotel; residential and official space responds to the areas development density and provides resident guests and visitors with direct connections to adjacent site amenities, shopping, and mass transit system.
Architecture
Standing tall of 828 meters Burj Khalif's purpose was for pushing current analyzes elements and construction technologies, completely to a new tallness. In any case, all things considered, a building stature had at no other time endeavored, it was important to guarantee all innovations and strategies utilized were of sound improvement and practice. The originators, subsequently, employed customary frameworks, materials and developments strategies, modifying and executing them in unprecedented capacities. The building’s “Y” shaped plan was applied only to develop an intently stable geometry for the structure but also to yield the maximum amount of perimeter (Abdelrazaq 51). This gave accessibility to space and daylight without allowing tenets to look into neighbors units, which could be culturally unacceptable.
As the pyramidal tower appeared, setbacks took place at the end of each “wing” in a higher, spiraling design that decreased the mass of the tower as the length is increased. The spiraling is reminiscent of spiraling characteristics are seen on ancient Arabic obelisks and monuments. It is additionally structured at the mechanical floors to maximize the stiffness and stability of the building. During its development, this setback structure was modeled in wind tunnels to determine the softest and most effective way to minimize wind force and was the result of close coordination between architects and structural engineers
The Extraordinary cladding is comprised of aluminum and textured stainless steel spandrel boards and was intended to withstand Dubai's compelling surroundings amid the late spring month. Vertical cleaned stainless steel balances were added to highlight Burj Khaliff’s height and slenderness, providing some shading on the exterior surface and catching the light at the beginning and end of the day to enhance the spectacular quality of the tower. With over three million feet of inside space to be intended for Burj Khalifa, arranging of the building's inside started at the most precise phases of its configuration. Interestingly, even the limited time writing on the site committed the building alludes to the vestibule of characteristic assets and praises the way that oil did not add to the city's change. The configuration group worked towards accomplishing three principle objectives –recognizing and identifying the structures tallness, coordinating its auxiliary and building justification and valuing the area's legacy, history, and society
Structure
The exceptional tallness of the Burj Khalifa obliged it to be the most creative designed building conceivable. Plans methods, building a framework, and development rehearses all required reevaluating, redefining and in many cases, reinventing applications already in place, to create a practical and efficient building. Created especially for Burj Khalifa, the structural system consisted of a sided high performance reinforced central concrete core with tree “wings” –a system also dubbed a “buttressed core.” Loads from one wing are transferred to the other sides via the six-sided core. Halls dividers stretch out from the focal center at close to the end of every wing, ending in thickened harmed head walls. Perimeter strings and flat base floor system complete the arrangement.
Outrigger walls tie the vertical structure at the mechanical floors to maximize the stiffness and stability of the building. The result is a highly efficient structure, in which the entire vertical structure of the building is used to maintain both gravity and oblique loads. Shaping and orientation of the tower were significantly influenced by its performance in the strong winds. Numerous wind passageway experiment and design iterations were needed to develop a solution for optimal performance (Abdelrazaq 201). The complete project has come to represent the problems of excess, which include substantially related concerns, labor protections in the construction industry, and the challenges associated with building hastily in a harsh environment constructing the tower necessitated the highest single-stage pumping of concrete ever performed.
Sustainability
The Burj Khalif implemented new ways of increasing structural and structure efficiencies while plummeting material use and misuse. Lessons gained from Burj Khalifa will help future super tall ventures diminish the natural effect connected with development and crude material extraction. Maintainable components of the Burj Khalif incorporate Sky Sourced ventilation. Cooler air temperatures diminished air weight and decreased relative mugginess at the tallness of the structure take into consideration "sky-sourced" outside air. At the point when the air is pulled in at the highest point of the structure, it needs less vitality for space, aerating and cooling, and dehumidification. Kind recuperation framework, Burj Khalifa has one of the biggest condensate recuperation frameworks on the planet.
Electric metering, singular electric vivacity checking frameworks empower vitality advancement of the towers over its presence. This will show up in a lessening of Burj Khalifa's vitality related natural effect. Savvy helping and mechanical control; the structure’s administration framework results in lower operational costs, more proficient utilization of building assets and drives, better control of interior solace conditions, and successful observing and focusing of vitality utilizations. Stake impact controls; warm contrasts between the building inside and outside creates a stack effect. Burj Khalif was intended to control these elements inactively, lessening the requirement for a mechanical method for pressurization while sparing vitality.
The astonishing shield is bargained of aluminum and textured stainless steel spandrel sheets and was proposed to withstand Dubai's convincing surroundings in the midst of the late spring month. Vertical cleaned stainless steel parities were added to highlight Burj Khaliff's tallness and slimness, giving some shading on the outside surface and getting the light toward the starting and end of the day to improve the fabulous nature of the tower. With more than three million feet of inside space to be expected for Burj Khalifa, masterminding of the workings inside began at the most timely periods of its setup. The arrangement bunch worked towards finishing three standard targets –recognizing and perceiving the structures tallness, planning its assistant and building defense and esteeming the zone's legacy, history and society
Economy and Architecture
Although the consequences of unbridled growth were server before the global economic crisis, a July 2014 International Monetary Fund report on the United Arab Emirates noted a strong recovery in the real estate market. Architecture played a key role in the speculative frenzy that resulted in an extraordinary economic gain for some and significant losses for others. As “flipping” activity drove real estate prices to an exceptional level, architects were increasingly expected to ensure differentiation and distinction through a project that was marketed using rendered representations and sold off-plan before construction.
Works of architecture and, in many cases the mere intimately connected the rise and fall of Dubai fortunes. Curiously, the absence of physical building supported economic growth and the presence of complete projects has come to represent the problems of excess, which include substantially related concerns, labor protections in the construction industry, and the challenges associated with building hastily in a harsh environment. Proposed works of architect, rather than actual buildings, attracted significant FDI and supported a speculative off-plan market in which sale price far exceeded the actual value of the “product.” The consultants measured their success by the fact that every apartment was sold within 24 hours, “netting more than half a billion dollars” (Jones 210). Clearly in the case of Burj Khalif, brand recognition was important than the existence of the “product.”
In spite of the fact that scarcity of natural resources and a harsh arid environment prohibited attaining the true self-sufficiency, Dubai has appropriated and apportioned the space of the city into free zones and freehold developments to maximize economic potential. International city and the Burj Khalif differ significantly in scope, scale and architectural expression, but both have played a role in supporting Dubai’s growth, and they serve to illustrate the effervescent nature of the city and its economy. In the case of International City, architectural intentions and the promise inherent in the pre-construction renderings were subverted almost immediately after the project was complete due to the changing economic circumstances.
The promotion of the Burj Khalif provides an example of the substantial effort invested in the attaining “brand recognition” in a global market, and the re-naming of the building is indicative of the complex relationship between architecture and economy. The transformation of Dubai’s built environment has been extraordinary, and the attendant consequences have been significant. A the city seeks to overcome the challenges associated with scarcity in the future time will tell whether the search for greater bounty will transcend tangible economic measures to allow for architectural and urban project that responds more sensitively to their environment and their inhabitants.
Conclusion
The design of the tower required intense efforts of collaboration between architect and engineer. Although height was central to the projects development; Burj Khalifa represents a progressive shifting design and engineering that presents new solutions to complex problems. By combining cutting edge technologies and regional culture inspirations, SOM created a vertical city that has become a model for the development of future urban centers and speaks to an ever-growing worldwide development towards conservative, reasonable urban sections. Burj Khalifa represents a significant achievement of a new global generation of architectures and engineers and serves as an incentive for the future growth and development of downtown Dubai.
Works Cited
Aldred, James. "Burj Khalifa–a new high for high-performance concrete. “Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Civil Engineering. Vol. 163. No. 2. Thomas Telford Ltd, 2010.
Ahmad Abdelrazaq, S. E. "Design and construction planning of the Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE." 2010 Structures Congress. 2010.
Abdelrazaq, Ahmad. "Validating the dynamics of the Burj Khalifa." CTBUH J2 (2011): 18-23.
Abdelrazaq, A. "Validating the structural behavior and response of Burj Khalifa: Synopsis of the full-scale structural health monitoring programs. “Proceedings of the 1st Middle East conference on smart monitoring, assessment and rehabilitation of civil structures (SMAR’11). 2011.
Baker, W. F. (2011). The World’s tallest building. STRUCTURE, 51.
Jones, Paul. "Putting architecture in its social place: a cultural, political economy of architecture." Urban Studies 46.12 (2009): 2519-2536.
