|
Approximately 14 visitors to the world’s tallest tower, including a child, got trapped in an elevator during an ascent to the 124th floor, which usually takes only 60 seconds. The lift jammed at a height just 12m below the 442m-high outdoor observation deck. The building has 57 elevators that can each hold up to 14 people and travel at 10m per second. A spokesperson for Emaar properties said: “The elevator of at the top was briefly stalled and operations were resumed soon after. Visitors were safely transported to level 124. The safety of our guests is of paramount importance and all elevators in Burj Khalifa are tested and function to the highest safety standards”.
Standing at 828m (2,716ft) high, the Burj Khalifa has 160 floors, more than 500,000 sq m of space for offices and flats and is clad in 28,000 glass panels. The tower also lays claim to the highest occupied floor, the tallest service lift, and the world's highest observation deck – on the 124th floor. The world's highest mosque and swimming pool will be located on the 158th and 76th floors. The design incorporates ideas from traditional Islamic architecture, while the open petals of a desert flower were the inspiration for the tower's base.
Mohamed Ali Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties, the developer behind Burj Khalifa, said the building's design had posed unprecedented technical and logistical challenges, not just because of its height but also because Dubai was susceptible to high winds and was close to a geological fault line. "We have been hit with lightning twice, there was a big earthquake last year that came across from Iran, and we have had all types of wind which has hit us when we were building. The results have been good and I salute the designers and professionals who helped build it," he said.
Burj Khalifa will be home to 1,044 luxury apartments, 49 floors of offices and eventually a 160-room Armani-branded hotel. Around 12,000 people are expected to live and work in the tower, which is part of a 500-acre development. However, investors are facing losses even before the tower is completed because property prices in Dubai have slumped amid the global economic crisis.
Burj Khalifa – in numbers
95: distance in km at which its spire can be seen
504: rise in metres of its main service lift
57: number of lifts
49: number of office floors
1,044: number of residential apartments
900: length in feet of the fountain at the foot of the tower, the world's tallest performing fountain
28,261: number of glass cladding panels on the exterior of the tower
|
Plan Magazine
