Burj Khalifa is worth USD 1.5 billion and was built over a period of six years. The foundational excavation work commenced in January 2004. The tower was formally opened on January 2010 while the interior was yet to be completed. Burj Khalifa rises 2,717 feet above the desert and was built to house a variety of commercial, residential, and hospitality ventures.

Burj Khalifa was designed by the Chicago-based architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Adrian Smith served as the architect, and William F. Baker worked as the structural engineer. The building is modular in plan and laid out on a three-lobed footprint, an abstract rendering of the local Hymenocallis flower giving it a Y- shape. It is wrapped in a glass curtain wall with steel mullions to catch the Arabian sun. Its tapers from its Y-shaped base, with setbacks  culminating in a spire of 700-foot (200 metres).

The tower’s foundation is supported by a reinforced concrete mat  almost 13 feet (4 metres) thick. The body of the tower is also supported by concrete piles 5 feet (1.5 metres) in diameter. The Burj Khalifa is held in place on a three-story podium of about 2,000,000 squads, culminating in 86,000 square m700 feet. The tower’s exterior is made up of  aluminium and stainless-steel panels, vertical stainless-steel tubular fins, and more than 28,000 hand-cut glass panels. A public observation deck, called “At the Top,” is located on the 124th floor.

The Y-shaped plan of the Burj Khalifa is purposed to help reduce the wind forces on the tower. A hexagonal central core is buttressed by a series of wings, each with its own concrete core and perimeter columns. As the tower increases in height, the wings step back in a spiral configuration. This changes the building’s shape at each tier and reduces the effect of the wind on the building.

Burj Khalifa surpasses the Taipei 101 (Taipei Financial Center) building in Taipei, Taiwan, the former world’s tallest building which measures 1,667 feet (508 metres). Furthermore, Burj Khalifa broke numerous other records, including the world’s tallest freestanding structure, the world’s highest occupied floor, and the world’s highest outdoor observation deck.

Burj Khalifa is more than twice the height of the Empire State Building and almost three times the size of the Eiffel Tower.

REFERENCE

Information from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Burj-Khalifa, https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/best-architectural-projects-article and https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/hall-of-fame/burj-khalifa-tallest-building-in-the-world was used in this story