Archinect - News

Burj Azizi, Dubai's future second-tallest tower, begins construction in the UAE

2024-01-22T15:27:00-05:00

The imminent start of construction of the Burj Azizi, a $1.5 billion new commercial high-rise in Dubai that’s billed to become the city’s second-tallest construction upon completion, has been announced in the United Arab Emirates by a prominent local developer named Azizi Developments.

The tower, which has yet to name an architect or specify its final height at topping out, will reportedly host a vertical mall, luxury residences, and an observation deck. Planned for 122 stories, it will rival the Lotte World Tower and China 117 Tower as one of just five structures in the world to be completed at over 120 stories in height. Its construction will take place not far from the record-holding Burj Khalifa on Sheikh Zayed Road, culminating in a new icon backers say is a gift to the city that has nurtured their business success over many years.

“This tower will be our legacy,” said the Chairman of the Azizi company, Mr. Mirwais Azizi. “With Dubai having given my family and I so much — safe...

Cladding fire breaks out in 35-story Dubai apartment tower

2022-11-07T17:00:00-05:00

A massive fire was reported in the early hours of Monday morning at the 8 Boulevard Walk Tower in Downtown Dubai. Located near the Burj Khalifa, the 35-storey tower was ablaze and was extinguished just before 4am. The building seems to have extensive fire damage on the façade spanning through all floors.

The cause of the fire is unknown but appears to have been affected by the structure’s cladding, which residents told The Daily Mail was supposed to be replaced following a New Year’s Eve blaze in 2015 that caused significant damage to the nearby Address Downtown Dubai hotel.

1/ #Dubai

The Emaar skyscraper of the largest developer in Dubai partially burned down

The fire started early this morning near the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. pic.twitter.com/frFKZI1zu9
— David Kime (@CyberRealms1) November 7, 2022

Similar incidents prior to this have raised concerns for the safety of high-rises in Dubai completed before 2012 during a torrent of construction in the capital. According to some reports, at least 500 buildings in the UAE are susceptible owing to the combustibility of their cladding, which contains the same thermoplastic material likely to have fueled the deadly 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London. No injuries have been reported.

This is now the second large fire...

New AS+GG book explores design process behind world’s tallest towers

2022-11-07T12:37:00-05:00

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) has published a new book charting the firm’s design and delivery of some of the world’s tallest structures. Titled Supertall | Megatall: How High Can We Go?, the book uses drawings and details from AS+GG’s archives to explore projects from the viewpoint of sustainability, technology, programming, and contextualization.

Among the schemes featured in the book are the Central Park Tower in New York City, the Chengdu Greenland Tower in China, and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which still holds the record of the world’s tallest building.

Central Park Tower by AS+GG. Image © Royce Douglas

With only 173 completed supertall buildings around the world, defined as a building whose height measures between 985 and 1,970 feet (300 and 600 meters), AS+GG sees the retrospective look at built precedents as an important tool for informing future high-rise projects.

"To go back and see something that was done 15 years ago, and how that's weathering, or how...

Encircling the Burj Khalifa high up in the sky, Dubai architects propose a massive 'gated community' megastructure

2022-08-19T12:03:00-04:00

Downtown Circle is made up of five levels and would sit on five points, or pillars, embedded into the ground. The massive span of the circle itself would be composed of two main rings held together by a continuous green belt named the Skypark which vertically connects the floors with each other creating a connected three-dimensional urban green eco-system.

The National mentions that the (supposedly) self-sustaining 550-meter-tall (1,804-foot) structure would include a tram system and incredible landscaped features such as swamps and a waterfall in and around its three-kilometer (1.86-mile) long tract. ZNera Space, the Dubai-based firm behind the proposal, mentioned it in terms of the NEOM project’s recently-announced 'The Line' megastructure, stating that its concept differs within an urban context, but that the radical design, which was thought up during the pandemic, "raises the discussion of what we can do better" in terms of agricultural production and social division.

"Our roles as architects is to come up with these ideas," co-founder Najmus Chowdry said. "We want people to comment on it, criticise it, to see how we can think about building topographies."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by ZNera (@znera.space)

Height vs. Hashtags: Where do the world's tallest skyscrapers stack up?

2019-08-20T07:00:00-04:00

With plenty of futuristic and architecturally diverse buildings to choose from, which of these world-famous designs has gained the title of the most popular on Instagram around the world? We gathered research to find out the most Instagrammed skyscrapers in the world [...] we wanted to see what the total height of these Instagram photos would be in comparison to the height of the buildings themselves.

With the looming presence social media has over the built environment, iconic buildings have never been easier to track down, especially as platforms like Instagram make high-profile architecture accessible at the press of a button.

Dublin Airport Central recently conducted a study to understand where five of the most instagrammed skyscrapers rank against their related hashtags.

Stacked column next to image of building: the group used Polaroid pictures as if they were printed and piled up. Graph courtesy of Dublin Airport Central

According to Dublin Airport Central, despite no longer being the tallest building in the world, the Empire State Building is the most instagrammed skyscraper in the world. If those individually tagged posts are printed out as physical Polaroid photos and stacked one on top of the other, according to the source, the height of all the “hashtagged” photos of the Empire State Building easily towers over the skyscraper itself.

The Burj Khalifa, on the other han...

New images of world's next tallest tower, Calatrava-designed Dubai Creek Tower

2017-08-18T13:38:00-04:00

Building within the 2.3 square-mile Dubai Creek Harbour complex, Emaar is looking to eclipse its most famous creation the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest structure since 2010. To do so has required laying 236ft deep foundation piles—a world record—set to be capped with 1.59 million cubic feet of concrete. When completed, the 3,045ft tower will best the Burj by a massive 322ft.

The Emaar Properties and Dubai Holdings joint venture is inspired by the lily flower and mosque minarets, say its developers, and will feature a 68-mile array of supporting cables. Swiss-Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava has designed a 360-degree observation deck and a capacious Hanging Gardens of Babylon-style floor into the structure, with views over the nearby Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary.

With the new tower, the developer is looking to beat the record height of its most famous creation the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest structure since 2010, by 322 feet. Located within the 2.3 square-mile Dubai Creek Harbor complex, the Dubai Creek Tower required the deepest foundation piles ever made—set to be capped with 1.59 million cubic feet of concrete.

Image courtesy of Emaar Properties

An image from Emaar Properties dated August 13 shows workers constructing the pile cap frame on to which 1.59 million cubic feet of concrete will be poured.

Korea's tallest tower poised to rival Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as iconic tourist attraction

2015-11-09T13:49:00-05:00

LDF aims to grow the Lotte Duty Free Shop World Tower into the world’s No.1 duty-free shopping destination. [...] Lotte is poised to turn the Lotte World Tower into a tourist attraction that can compare well with Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands On top of that, the company plans to make the Lotte World Tower the largest tourism hub in Gangnam by equipping it with the world's highest observatory (located on the 123rd floor (555 meters high) [...].

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A new ethics of the skyline: the mile-high building is coming

2015-03-24T15:52:00-04:00

The technology of supertall buildings is a bit like genetic testing or nuclear energy: a volatile form of power. Technological capacities have outpaced our judgment. We know we can do it, but we don’t know when not to do it. And so some endlessly wealthy mogul [...] will eventually move into a preposterously expensive penthouse so far above the Earth’s crust that the air is thin and gales hammer at the glass. A mile’s not science fiction. It’s not even an outer limit.

Ever wondered what it feels like to stand on top of the Burj Khalifa?

2013-03-20T17:43:00-04:00

My old battered shoes climbed the worlds tallest building today. What an amazing structure! Tweeting from 820 meters straight up!

150 stories - but no sewer connection

2012-12-30T11:09:00-05:00

'[R]emember that a place like Dubai really emerged in the last 50 years. It was a sleepy, you know, Bedouin town half a century ago. And what you do is when you bring in the world’s, you know, most sophisticated architects and engineers, you can literally build anything, including a building of 140 or 150 stories. But designing a municipal network of sewage treatment is in some ways more complex. - KATE ASCHER

Terry Gross recently interviewed Kate Ascher about her skyscraper book, and ended up discussing the common lack of sewage connections in Dubai - including the Burj Khalifa. So they end up using trucks to cart the sewage to the central treatment plant, where they often end up queuing for 24-hours or more before they can be emptied.

Gizmodo calculated:

'The Burj Khalifa has 163 habitable floors. It's designed to hold 35,000 people at any given time. Now, humans produce 100 to 250 grams (3 to 8 ounces) of feces per day. Let's say 200 in this case, since these people are well fed. That's 7,000,000 grams per day. Seven tonnes of poop per day. Now, add human-produced liquids (pee, bathing, cleaning their teeth...) and the water to push the poop down its miles of sewage pipes. I think a very conservative total would be 15 tonnes of sewage per day.

That's a lot of poop.'

Adrian Smith Will Design NYC, North America's Tallest Apartment Building

2012-12-17T13:08:00-05:00

He's already designed the world's tallest building (and highest apartments) at the Burj Khalifa, as well as Chicago's highest apartments (and second tallest tower). Now, Adrian Smith will be the architect of 225 West 57th Street, set to become New York City's tallest apartment building at 1,550 feet or higher. The project is years away, but it is already chasing a number of other 1,000-plus-foot projects onto the skyline.