How the Burj was built

Burj Khalifa is 828 metres high.
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Vision is a word you hear a lot in the GCC. But just imagine if you will, sitting down in a meeting and deciding to construct the world’s tallest building in your city. Not one that is going to be the tallest by a few dozen metres, and relinquish its title to another tower, in another city, within a few years, but the tallest by a massive margin.

If you can imagine that, then you can get a feeling for the vision that went into coming up with the Burj Khalifa, now open and officially the world’s tallest tower, a whopping 300m-plus taller than the next nearest rival. More than six years in the making and not fully-finished just yet, the project was and is a massive undertaking, one that has paired bold vision with a brave leap into the engineering unknown.

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FEATURED COMMENT real neck stiffing , much stiffing if they built it at 1000 meters.. wish i could go there in dubai.. to stare at it pe   12 Comments Read more comments »

Making it happen not only needed vision, but cash and a fair whack of design and engineering genius. Pushing at the envelope of engineering means trying new things, developing new techniques and doing a ton of testing.

And while it’s hard to find a construction contractor or supplier who doesn’t claim to have been involved in the making of the Burj Khalifa, CW takes a look at what those who were really there had to do to build an icon.

To read on, click here or on the numbers below.