/ 4 January 2010

Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building, set to open

With batteries of fireworks and an invited crowd of 6 000 guests, the rulers of Dubai will on Monday attempt to convince the world that their financial troubles have been overstated with a lavish inauguration of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Dubai, rising almost a kilometre from the Arabian desert.

Setting aside fears that the emirate is on the brink of defaulting on its debt, Dubai’s ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, is expected to make a triumphal ascent of the spire-shaped tower which rises a giddying 818m. With swimming pools on floors 43 and 76 and plans for the world’s highest mosque on the 158th floor, the $1-billion “superscraper” dwarfs both the world’s previous tallest building, the 508m tall tower 101 in Taipei, and the 629m KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota, the tallest man-made structure. It is so high, the temperature is said to be 10°C cooler at the zenith than at the base.

But with many investors in the building’s 1 044 apartments already facing losses after property prices in Dubai slumped, the Burj’s owners are struggling to present their architectural achievement as anything but a pyrrhic victory. The offices and most of the flats are still an estimated two months from completion and the emirate’s neighbours in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, which provided Dubai with a $24-billion bailout last year, are also understood to be unimpressed at the ostentation of the building.

The fountain outside cost a reported $214-million and the 160 room hotel was designed by fashion designer Georgio Armani and boasts a nightclub, two restaurants and a spa. It is reported to have been built with enough glass to cover 17 football pitches and sufficient concrete to build a pavement from London to Naples. Meanwhile labourers on the project, including many immigrants from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, earned low wages. Skilled carpenters took home just $7 a day and labourers, $4,50.

But even by the standards of an emirate which has created kilometres more beach front by building vast islands from millions of tonnes of sand in the shapes of palms, the tower stands out as Dubai’s most remarkable achievement yet. About 12 000 people are expected to live and work in the tower which is part of a 500-acre development known as “downtown” Burj Dubai.

Mohamed Alabbar, chairperson of Emaar Properties, the state-owned developer said Burj Dubai was “another demonstration of Dubai’s ability to achieve what few people thought possible”.

“The tower is a global icon,” he said. “It represents the determination and optimism of Dubai as a truly world city. It is a powerful symbol for the entire Arab world.” – guardian.co.uk