The Dubai Mall is the second largest mall in Dubai covering over 1 million square metres and houses an Olympic-sized Ice Rink and the Dubai Aquarium.
Dubai Aquarium showcases more than 33,000 aquatic animals.
The world’s first Armani Hotel opened April 2010 and the interiors were personally designed by Giorgio Armani.
Amal restaurant in the Armani Hotel serves authentic Indian dishes with live musicians . Dishes include Lemongrass Prawn and Tawa Scallops, Barra Lamb chop, Lasooni Chicken Tikka, Kiwi & Pomegranate Salad, Macchi Jhalfrezi seabass, Turkey breast Roulade, Lamb Vindaloo, Chocolate Cardamom finger.
Burj Khalifa
Originally named Burj Dubai but later changed to Burj Khalifa by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. It has 160 stories, 1.85 million square feet of residential space, 300,000 square feet of office space. The design was Inspired by the Spider Lily, a regional desert flower that inspired Adrian Smith’s vision of the iconic tower.
The entrance designed by Egyptian Karim Rashid highlighting “the sculpture of shifting ovals using a highly reflective organic coating and natural stones in a transparent UV-resistant epoxy system.”
Fun Facts:
More than 12,000 people worked on the site with 196 nationalities making up 30 on-site contracting companies from around the world.
Flight paths in and out of Dubai had to be changed at various height milestones
It took 22 million man hours to build the tower. It took six years to complete. This “vertical city” can hold approximately 10,000 people at any given point in time.
The construction site featured three of the world’s largest cranes with the ability to lift 25 tonnes.
The stairwell has 2,909 steps leading up to the 160th floor.
The structure broke records by using 11.6 million cubic feet of concrete, 39,000 m/t of reinforced steel, 1.1 million square feet of glass, 166,800 square feet of embossed stainless steel.
The total amount of concrete used would equal the weight of 100,000 elephants.
26,000 individually hand-cut glass panels make up the exterior.
The entire structure is supported by a 3.7 metres thick reinforced concrete mat.
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill created close to 4,000 drawings when designing Burj Khalifa; when the building was on site, close to 10 times more drawings were produced.
The observation decks offers an aerial view of The Dubai Fountain which performs 13 water shows daily.
Common areas of the Burj Khalifa are scented with 18 different aromas .
Burj Khalifa has over 85 commissioned works from artists around the world.
Ranks #1 in height to highest occupied floor 1,800 feet and height to tip 2,716.5 feet
World Records
Tallest building
Tallest man-made structure
Tallest free-standing structure
Largest number of stories
Highest occupied floor
Highest outdoor observation deck
World record for vertical concrete pumping
Tallest service elevator
Highest aluminum and glass façade
World’s fastest double deck elevators traveling at 10 m/s
At.mosphere is the world’s highest restaurant
The 123rd floor houses the world’s highest library.
Throughout the project, high compressive strength concrete mixtures were used to withstand the record-breaking weight. Pours were only done at night with concrete being chilled prior to mixing and part of the water being replaced with shards of ice.
Burj Khalifa’s water system supplies an average of 946,000 litres of water a day with water storage tanks every 30 floors.
The gardens are irrigated with water collected from the condensation from the tower’s air-conditioning systems.
Cleaning the exterior is accomplished with 18 permanently installed telescopic units that extend 36 metres. It takes 3-4 months to clean the entire exterior.
Fred Fugen and Vince Reffet took the first leap off Burj Khalifa in April 2014 and claimed the Guinness World Record title of “Highest BASE Jump from the Tallest Building”.
Alain Robert aka “French Spiderman” scaled the tower in just over six hours March 2011.
The ambient temperature at the tip of Burj Khalifa is six degrees cooler than the temperature at ground level. During peak cooling hours the tower requires about 10,000 tons of cooling equivalent to the cooling capacity of 10,000 tons of melting ice.
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) bestowed the “Global Icon” award in 2010.
Burj Khalifa was featured in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol with Tom Cruise.