The Shanghai World Financial Center, which boasts the highest occupied floor in the world, was chosen as the winner for “its revolutionary structural design and inspirational symbolism,” according to the council. Formed out of a square prism intersected by two “cosmic arcs,” the building includes a distinctive, multi-story trapezoidal aperture at its upper floors. The firm’s design was inspired by two Chinese burial symbols: “a square prism essentially representative of the earth, and a heaven symbol—a circular disc with a circular aperture cut through it,” says Bill Pedersen, FAIA, of KPF. “We wanted to do a building that was a genuine expression of the relationship between the earth and the sky,” he explains, “and also that could be connected to the culture within which it is placed.”

Shanghai World Financial Center

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Although, several other projects were announced that claimed to surpass Burj Dubai’s height, analysts now agree that all such projects would require several billions for completion, and hence, they have all been bought to a halt.

The crisis is expected to govern global lives for the next three to five years, and an additional five years at least, would be required for the towers to surpass the 818 meters final height of Burj Dubai, and hence, it is now safe to say that the astonishing landmark, Burj Dubai, would cement its place as the world’s tallest building till 2019.

About four projects have been announced till date to outstrip Dubai. One being the Al Burj Tower by Nakheel in Dubai, the others are the Murjan Tower 1 in Bahrain, Burj Mubarak al-Kabir in Kuwait, and a kilometer high tower for Jeddah by Saudi Arabian Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal.

Yet another alarming indicator shows up in the database of Emporis GmbH, the world’s largest provider of global building data.

Looking only at skyscrapers, which Emporis defines as buildings at least 100 meters tall, work has stopped on 8.7% (124 of 1431) of tall buildings already underway worldwide.

Considering that the United States real estate crash was a major catalyst for this crisis, it is not surprising that construction has been curtailed sharply in the U.S. Of 203 skyscrapers under construction here, 21 (10.3%) have been set on ice.

Australia is also suffering a worse-than-average stoppage rate, with 4 out of 36 projects put on hold (11.1%). In Asia the rate is exactly 10%, with 84 out of 840 skyscraper projects in the database stopped, although many Asian skyscrapers had ceased progress well before the crisis, whereas the only skyscraper in the U.S. or Europe known to have been on hold more than six months ago is Met 1 in Miami.

Less affected are European countries, where 7 of 119 skyscraper projects (5.9%) have stopped in 2008, including 5 in former Soviet states. Builders in South America have reacted less drastically, as only 2 out of 77 skyscraper projects there (2.6%) have stopped. The United States’ neighbors, Mexico, Canada, and Central America, have been spared the worst so far, with only 6 out of 153 (3.9) projects shut down.

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Launched on 6 October – the first day of Cityscape Dubai and Sunland’s 25 year anniversary – the development’s unique and majestic design is set to be one of Waterfront’s most iconic buildings reaching 278 meters above sea level.

Set in landscaped gardens and enjoying head-turning views across the Arabian Gulf, The Atrium will provide a collection of stylish residences including studios, one, two and three-bedroom apartments, Skyhomes and four and five bedroom penthouses. Levels 2 to 68 of The Atrium will be dedicated to residences with an entire floor of lifestyle amenities on level one. This will include a residents’ lounge, two swimming pools, gymnasium, health spa, business lounge and library, juice bar, two private residents’ cinemas, billiards room, children’s activity centre, golf simulator, and function room.

At lobby level there is a 24 hour concierge providing access to each residential wing, along with ground level specialty retail shops and restaurants with secure basement parking. The collection of luxury apartments will range from 60 m² for a studio apartment up to 1,250 m² for a presidential-style penthouse on the top 68th residential floor.

In reflection of The Atrium’s location on Waterfront, one of Dubai’s most important masterplan projects, Sunland Group launched an international external design competition for the project and shortlisted four of the world’s foremost architectural firms. The winning architectural practice was award-winning Pickard Chilton, who designed Four Seasons Place in Kuala Lumpur which was designed to complement the neighbouring Petronas Towers.

The Atrium will rise as two arching towers, blending together at the 47th level as one to form a sculpted gateway, framing and maximising view to the Arabian Gulf and the City. The distinguished design captures the sophisticated essence of the international and dynamic city that is Dubai.

It would not comment on the exact height or cost of the Islamic design-inspired Nakheel Tower. The building will have “more than 200 floors” and be part of “a multi-billion pound development”, the company said.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, a cautious Nakheel chief executive officer, Christopher O’Donnell, said: “From our perspective, we are building a tower that’s going to be over a kilometre in height. This is a complete iconic development. It may be the tallest.”

The tower and harbour project will take more than 10 years to complete. Apart from the landmark structure, there will be another 40 towers, ranging in height from 20 floors to 90 floors. The entire development will be home to more than 55,000 people and a workplace for more than 45,000.

Dubai said Sunday it is embarking on an even more ambitious skyscraper: one that will soar the length of more than 10 American football fields.

That’s about two-thirds of a mile or the height of more than three of New York’s Chrysler Buildings stacked end-to-end.

The tower, which will take more than a decade to complete, will be the centerpiece of a sprawling development state-owned builder Nakheel plans to create in the rapidly growing “New Dubai” section of the city. Foundation work has already begun, O’Donnell said.

About 150 elevators will carry residents and workers to the Nakheel Tower’s more than 200 floors, the company said. The building will be composed of four separate towers joined at various levels and centered on an open atrium.

The company said the new project is inspired by Islamic design and draws inspiration from sites such as the Alhambra in Spain and the harbor of Alexandria in Egypt.

“There is nothing like it in Dubai,” said Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Nakheel’s chairman.

Perhaps not quite. But Dubai is already home to the world’s tallest building, even if it remains unfinished.

That skyscraper, the Burj Dubai, or Dubai Tower in Arabic, is being built by Nakheel’s chief competitor, Emaar Properties.

The 50-storey building will be situated in the south-west of the city at the Porte de Versailles.

It has been nicknamed the ‘Delanoë tower’ after the city’s socialist mayor Bertrand Delanoë, who won the fight to bring high-rises back to Paris after convincing the city council in July to make exceptions to the 30-year-old ban.

The ban prohibits buildings of above 37m-high and was inspired by the 210 Tour Montparnasse.

Constructed by rotating structural slabs from axis and comprising cantilevers, protruding balconies, and profiled slab corners, 56 Leonard Street will appear something like a Brobdingnagian stack of glass Jenga pieces or a flamboyant nod to architecture’s Metabolism movement. This irregular arrangement of blocks yields a different floor plan for each of the 145 condo units.

Above the double-height lobby—under whose shifting volumes artist Anish Kapoor will slip a giant, kidney-shaped mirrored sculpture—and a private parking garage on the second level, the building divides into several zones. The lowest, contained within four floors that the architects have dubbed “the townhouses,” is articulated to relate to the immediate context and includes amenity spaces such as a 75-foot-long pool and adjoining sundeck, film screening room, and conference and fitness centers. One- to five-bedroom residences populate floors eight through 45, while the top nine stories, seemingly precariously stacked, contain 10 full- and half-floor penthouses ranging in size from 3,650 to 6,380 square feet.

Herzog de Meuron were responsible for the design of the “Bird’s Nest” Olympic Stadium in Bejing.

Total investment in the 101-story, 492-meter-high landmark project, located in Pudong’s Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone, amounts to over eight billion Yuan (1.16 billion U.S. dollars).

This building will be the 2nd highest completed building in the world behind the Taipei 101. The Burj Dubai once completed will push this building to 3rd place.

1. The elevators will have the world’s longest travel distance from lowest to highest stop

2. Hot air on the outside will condense due to the large cooling needs of the building. The condensation will be collected and used to water the buildings flora and fauna. 20 Olympic sized swimming pools per year of water.

3. There are 1,210 fire extinguishers on the site.

4. At the peak cooling times, the tower will require approximately 10,000 tonnes of cooling per hour.

5. The tower’s observation deck will be located 442 metres above ground, the highest publicly accessible observation deck in the world.

6. Condensation on the building will be collected and drained down to a holding tank located in the basement from where it will be pumped into the site irrigation system for use on the tower’s landscaped gardens. This system will provide about 15 million gallons of supplemental water per year, equivalent to nearly 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

7. The amount of steel rebar used for the tower is 31,400 metric tons - laid end to end this would extend over a quarter of the way around the world.

8. Dubai has set a new world record for vertical concrete pumping for a building, by pumping to over 460 metres. The previous record was held by Taipei 101 for pumping concrete up to a height of 448 metres.

9. Burj Dubai will also break the world record for altitude transportation of concrete before construction is complete.

10. The total area of cladding used to cover the Burj Dubai will be equivalent to 17 football fields.

11. The concrete used for the Burj Dubai is equivalent to: a solid cube of concrete 61 metres on a side, a sidewalk 1,900 kilometres long, the weight of 100,000 elephants.

12. The tower’s peak electricity demand is estimated at 36MVA, equivalent to roughly 360,000 100-watt light bulbs.

13. There will be 200 metres of dancing fountains at the foot of the Burj Dubai.

14. The Burj Dubai will feature the world’s first Armani Hotel.

15. Burj Dubai derives its design inspiration from the desert flower, Hymenocalis, and incorporates patterning systems that are embodied in Islamic architecture.

16. 54 lifts are to be installed in the tower.

17. The Burj Dubai spire will be visible from as far away as 95 kms.

18. At 5,500 kg capacity, the firemen/service elevator will be the world’s tallest service elevator.

19. First mega-rise to have elevators with specially programmed, permit-controlled evacuation procedures. (I wonder how they work? Weren’t we supposed Not to use evaluators in case of an emergency)

20. Highest publicly accessible observation tower at 442 meters. ( Go up and watch miles and miles of desert as well as ocean I guess!)

21. The curtain wall of Burj Dubai will be equivalent to 17 football fields.

22. The total glass requirement is 142K sq/m

23. The car park has approx. 3,000 parking places in four levels and a total area of just under 89,000 m2.

24. The car park ventilation system must comply with the USstandards Ashrae and AMCA for air quality and fan requirements and must in case of fire be suitable for operating at 300°C for not less than 60 minutes.
25. The double deck cabin elevators are the fatest in the world and also the one to travel the longest from a lower to higher point. The speed of the cabin is 18 m/sec (40 mph).

26. It also has the worlds first programmed and controlled evacuation in the world.

27. It can withstand the worst storm to hit dubai in a 100 years

28. It has 15,000 sq ft of fitness facilities.

29. A cigar Club
30. Connected to the largest mall in the world.

And for the environmentally inclined person:

1. Power requirement is 36 KVA is equivalent of 36K lights bulbs of 100 watts each operating at the same time.

2. The cooling requirement is 10K tonnes of melting ice every day.

3. 15 Million gallons of supplemental water are collected and drained every day

And lastly, 33,236 Men in Blue work at the site on a regular basis.

Each building’s elegant white façade plays an integral role in its energy efficiency: “By mapping the different air flows and solar direction across the site, we were able to position different sized windows accordingly, minimizing heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer.” The façade also acts as the building’s main structural support, which allows the interior spaces great flexibility for the types of use they can accommodate.

Construction is currently underway and the complex will be completed in 2011.

The Ryugyong Hotel is an unfinished concrete skyscraper. It was intended for use as a hotel in Sojang-dong, in the Potong-gang District of Pyongyang, North Korea. Its 105 stories rise to a height of 330 m (1,083 ft), and it contains 360,000 m² (3.9 million square feet) of floor space, making it the most prominent feature of the city’s skyline and by far the largest structure in the country. At one time, it would have been the world’s tallest hotel.

Moreover, Suhail added that the size of the tower would equal the combined size of the five biggest office towers in Kuwait.

Al Hamra Tower will also be the tallest ’sculptured’ tower in the world as well as the tallest stone-clad skyscraper.

Regarding the tower’s design, whereas almost all skyscrapers are symmetrical over their main axis. Al-Hamra Tower has two tilting walls, one on each side, moving up in the air more than 50 metres away from their original location to almost 350 metres in height.

About 195,000 cubic metres of concrete, 6,000 tons of metal structures and 38,000 tons of iron will be used in building the tower, which will be installed with 40 elevators, some of which will run at speeds of up to 10 metres per second with a payload of up to 40 people.

Furthermore, there will two service elevators with a payload of up to seven tons. The complex will contain a 77-storey tower; each floor will contain only three offices. Each floor covers an area of approximately 2,400 square metres.

As many as 290 piles with a capacity of 1,200 tons each were put in the foundation. Concrete mix design was developed by the contractor specifically for the job as it is the first time that concrete strength above 600kg/m2 has been used.

The special mix took a lengthy research in the company’s laboratories, as the constituents available in Kuwait were not adequate for this high performance, and they succeeded in reaching on site strength of 1000kg/m2.

It’ll be a bit short, however, of the tallest tower in the world, despite some news sources calling it that, with the Burj Dubai already at 2,087 feet and expected to grow to an insane total of over 2,600 feet. But still, 2000 feet is nothing to scoff at, putting it higher than the CN Tower, the Taipei 101 and the Sears Tower.

The top of the tower will feature a restaurant and the requisite broadcast antennae, but it’s not known what’ll be in the rest of the building. The cost is expected to be around 60 billion yen, or $555 million, and it should be completed in 2011

These buildings will stand at least 400 meters high, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.

Seoul alone will have six skyscrapers, including Dream Tower, with 152 stories at a height of 620 meters in Yongsan, and the second Lotte World building in Jamsil. In the nation’s largest port city, Busan, four skyscrapers will be constructed, including Busan Lotte World, 120 and 510 meters high.

Korea is expected to outrun other nations in terms of number of skyscrapers with over 100 stories if all these towers are completed. Currently, the United Arab Emirates has six skyscrapers of a similar scale, followed by the United States with four and China with one.

Such constructions are expected to become a landmark and serve as a new source of tourism and regional economic growth. The existence of such high buildings also helps its neighborhood become better developed.

Some are concerned they may be hazardous in the face of natural or human disasters such as earthquakes and fire.

“We have basic guidelines for the construction of skyscrapers, which consider the city’s overall appearance and safety,” an official from the Seoul City Government said.

Another problem might be financing the construction.

The construction of buildings with more than 50 stories requires approximately twice the budget as those with fewer than 50. They also require high-tech methods of construction with the combination of various industries.

Consequently, projects for the construction of skyscrapers face difficulties in finding business partners or forming consortiums.

Some of the projects are pending due to finance issues, such as the construction of a skyscraper in Junggu, downtown Seoul, and a tour resort complex in Haeundae, Busan.