Burj Khalifa
The Burj Khalifa, located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, stands as the tallest building in the world at a height of 829.8 meters (2,722 feet). Completed in 2010, it serves as a prominent symbol of the UAE's modernization efforts and its burgeoning tourism industry. The design, inspired by Islamic architecture and local desert flora, reflects a blend of traditional and contemporary styles, making it a key feature of Dubai's skyline. The tower houses a mix of residential spaces, luxury hotels, and commercial areas, alongside an observation deck that attracts nearly two million visitors annually.
The Burj Khalifa is set against a backdrop of luxury attractions, including expansive malls and unique entertainment venues, enhancing its status as a central tourist destination. However, the building and the UAE at large face criticism regarding human rights issues and the conditions of foreign laborers. Despite these challenges, the Burj Khalifa has successfully fueled further architectural projects in the region, demonstrating the impact of its international recognition. Its surroundings include a thoughtfully designed park that provides a green space within the urban landscape, contributing to the area's appeal while raising awareness of environmental sustainability.
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Burj Khalifa
The world’s tallest, sleekest, architecturally acclaimed building is the Burj Khalifa located in the city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Burj Khalifa is the crown jewel in a flurry of sensational projects of the relatively tiny oil-rich UAE. Popular companions to Burj Khalifa for the rich and famous are Dubai’s humongous and expensive malls, Aquaventure World water park in the desert kingdom, the exclusive Dubai Marina Yacht Club, and other acclaimed architectural creations.
Burj Khalifa overlooks 650km (404mi) of UAE coastline along the Persian Gulf. The UAE economy is the second largest among the nearby nations after Saudi Arabia. Awakened to the vagaries of globalization, competition from developing oil finds, fracking extracting oil from shale rock, and decreasing use of oil related to the anti-fossil fuel environmental clean air movement, the UAE embarked on a building boom and nascent tourism industry. Burj Khalifa became their greatest symbol of a small nation modernizing its economy by leaving a big footprint.
Background
By the 2020s, Dubai had been ranked as one of the most visited cities in the world and had rapidly grown into one of the most popular tourist destinations. A motivating factor for the UAE’s investment in new infrastructure and publicity was to expand the sources of foreign capital into the UAE. In creating its new skyline by a building expansion boom, Dubai stressed old world Islamic architecture. Islamic architecture became an art form between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, with Dubai becoming the locus of modern Islamic architecture and neo-futurism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Central to this move was the completion in 2010 of Burj Khalifa, seemingly touching the sky at 829.8m (2,722ft). The architects patterned the tower embodying Islamic architecture systems and crafted the building base in the form of a desert flower native to Dubai. Along with other buildings rising throughout the late 1900s building boom, the Burj Khalifa created the world’s tallest skyline in 2010. Its observation deck receives millions of visitors a year.
Adrian Smith of the US-based firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill designed Burj Khalifa. The building consists of residential living spaces, some of the world’s most expensive hotels rated with the largest numbers of stars, commercial shops, and its own lake. The building sports a special exterior cladding to withstand the extremely hot temperatures in Dubai’s summer months. It contains fifty-seven elevators and eight escalator systems designed to quickly move large numbers of passengers in a short time.
However, the building is not without controversy. Critics and human rights activists have complained that the UAE practices Islamic religious law violating the human rights of women and political prisoners. Foreign workers from South and East Asia were the primary laborers, earning excessively low wages while working and living in near squalid conditions. Burj Khalifa was completed in six years. Its international recognition has stimulated foreign investment.
To make the tallest building stand out and stimulate the imagination, architects created a functional island with a forest grove, a promenade along the lake dotted with restaurants and cafés. There are children’s play areas and adult leisure safe-space areas in the desert climate. One architect characterized the park as a micro-climate-change condition from naturally hot and humid desert to livable conditions.
Burj Khalifa Today
Despite some controversy, the Burj Khalifa remained an architectural and business icon in the years after its construction. Even the annual New Year’s Eve fireworks display at the building proved so spectacular that television stations around the world carried the event. The tower’s success bred further development in Dubai, sparking a building boom that, some noted, also fueled global warming and pollution.
The park created from barren desert has remained one of the most illuminating and awe-inspiring experiences of the Burj Khalifa. An innovative green space, it contributes more to the sustainability of the area than other innovations. It also serves, in itself, as a major tourist attraction for destination weddings and events.
Bibliography
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Luchesse, Julia. "Burj Khalifa Tower Park: The Oasis-Like Paradise." Landscape Architects Network, 2 Apr. 2014, land8.com/burj-khalifa-tower-park-the-oasis-like-paradise/. Accessed 31 Dec. 2024.
McLaughlin, Katherine, and Rachel Davies. "Burj Khalifa: Everything You Need to Know About the Tallest Building in the World." Architectural Digest, 11 July 2024, www.architecturaldigest.com/story/burj-khalifa. Accessed 31 Dec. 2024.
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Willett, Megan. "Dubai’s Burj Khalifa Now Has the Highest Observation Deck in the World at 1,821 Feet, and It Looks Incredible." Business Insider, 17 Oct. 2014, www.businessinsider.com/dubais-burj-khalifa-observation-deck-2014-10. Accessed 31 Dec. 2024.