Facts
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The triple-lobed footprint of the building is based on an abstracted desert flower native to the region.
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A subtle reference to the onion domes of Islamic architecture can be found in the building's silhouette when looking up at the lobes from near the base.
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The tower will be situated on a man-made lake which is designed to wrap around the tower and to provide dramatic views of it.
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Engineers working on the design considered installing triple-decker elevators, which would have been the first in the world. The realized building will use double-decker elevators.
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The top of the building will contain a public observation deck and a private club above that.
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Although the building's shape resembles the bundled tube concept of the Sears Tower, it is structurally very different and is technically not a tube structure.
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The design by Skidmore Owings & Merrill replaces a plan to reuse the design for Grollo Tower, which was proposed in Melbourne a few years earlier.
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Designed by Adrian D. Smith, FAIA, RIBA Design Partner at Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP.
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"Burj" is Arabic for "Tower".
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Burj Dubai will become the world's tallest building, along with the world's tallest man-made structure when it is completed.
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The highest residential floor will be level 109.
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An observation deck will occupy the 124th floor.
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The building was rotated 120 degrees to allow for less stress from the prevailing winds.
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The building sits on a concrete and steel podium with 192 piles descending to a depth of more than 50 metres (164 feet).
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A total of 45,000 cubic metres of concrete are used in the foundations with a weight in excess of 110,000 tonnes.
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The exterior cladding is of reflective glazing with aluminium and textured stainless steel spandrel panels with vertical tubular fins of stainless steel.
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The cladding system is designed to withstand Dubai's extreme summer temperatures.
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This is the first world's tallest building since prehistoric times to include residential space.
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The official height has not been released, and remains secret. The total height of 808 meters is subject to change.
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Burj Dubai became the world's tallest high-rise building on July 24, 2007, and the world's tallest self-supporting structure on September 12, 2007.
