Arabtec is presently working on several prestigious projects, including, of course, Burj Khalifa - the world’s tallest building.

History was made in July 2007 when Arabtec, in association with Samsung Corporation of Korea and Besix of Belgium, completed the 140th floor to make Burj Khalifa taller than Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which at 508 metres (1,667 feet) had held the title of tallest-building-in-the-world since it opened in 2004.

Burj Khalifa will be the tallest structure in the world in all four of the criteria listed by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH):

• To Structural Top: Height to structural top of the building.
• To Highest Occupied Floor: Height to the floor of the highest occupied floor of the tower.
• To Top of Roof: Height to the top of the roof.
• To Tip of Spire/Antenna: Height to the tip of spire, pinnacle, antenna, mast, or flag pole.

Burj Khalifa is the centrepiece of Emaar’s Downtown Burj Khalifa, a $20 billion, 500-acre downtown development billed as the most prestigious square kilometres on earth.

The tower has been designed to manage the effects of wind and seismic movements and high-strength concrete makes up the tower’s super-structure, which is supported by large reinforced concrete mats and piles. The 80,000 square feet foundation slab and 50-metre deep piling are waterproofed and feature cathodic protection.

The steel bars that reinforce the structure weigh a total of 31,400 tonnes, which if laid end to end would stretch more than a quarter of the way round the world! The concrete used is equivalent to a solid cube of concrete 61 metres in size, or a 1.5-metre wide pavement, 1,200 miles long. It weighs the same as 100,000 elephants!

Primary materials of the exterior cladding system are reflective glazing, aluminium, textured stainless steel spandrel panels and vertical stainless steel tubular fins which accentuate the height and slender design of the tower.

Many of the floors will be occupied by the Armani Hotel. In addition, there will be luxury residential suites designed by Giorgio Armani which will be fitted out with his own home furnishing products. Floors 19 to 108 will contain some 800 private apartments, whilst the higher floors will be used as offices and private suites. 442 metres above the ground on the 124th floor there will be an observatory which will be accessible to the general public and floors 122 to 123 will have a club.

When completed, Burj Khalifa Tower will stagger the imagination. At peak cooling time, for example, the tower will require 10,000 tonnes of cooling per hour, which is equivalent to the capacity provided by 10,000 tonnes of melting ice in one day. Meanwhile the tower’s water system will supply an average of about 946,000 litres of water per day.

The tower’s peak electricity demand is roughly equivalent to 360,000 100-watt bulbs all operating at the same time, while its condensate collection system is truly the finest the 21st century can provide.

It’s highly environmentally friendly too, with all of the condensed water being collected and drained in a separate piping system down to a holding tank located in the basement car park. The water will then be pumped into the site’s irrigation system for use on the tower’s landscape plantings. This system will provide around 15 million gallons of supplemental water a year, equivalent to nearly 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The tip of the spire will be visible 60 miles away.