Chairman of Dubai Emaar property Mohamed al-abbar at the press conference in Dubai on 10 March 2016.
MARWAN NAAMANI/AFP/Getty Images
Dubai is planning to
build one of its most elaborate structures yet with developers promising
that it will dwarf the current world's tallest building – the Burj
Khalifa. The new tower, based at the centre of a new development called
Dubai Creek Harbour, is set to boast rotating balconies and landscaping
inspired by the mythical hanging gardens of Babylon.
Chairman of Dubai-based Emaar Properties Mohamed Alabbar,
said the huge viewing tower would cost about $1bn (£700m) to build in
the Arab emirate. He also said that the final height will be announced
closer to the topping-out ceremony - but he expects the tower to eclipse the pinnacle of the Burj Khalifa, which stands at 828 metres (2,700ft) and cost $1.5bn (£1.05bn) to build.
Alabaar said the tower would be a "gift to the city before
2020" – when Dubai hosts the Expo trade fair for real estate and
development. The complex, a tribute to Arab ambition and European
engineering, will be designed by the Spanish-Swiss architect Santiago
Calatrava Valls.
Mohamed
Alabbar (C), Chairman of Dubai Emaar Properties, developers of the
world's tallest Burj Khalifa tower, looks with other visitors at a
to-scale model of a new tower the real estate giant plans to build that
will be break the records for it's height, during an exposition in Dubai
on April 10, 2016.
MARWAN NAAMANI/AFP/Getty Images
Promising
the tower will be "a notch" taller than Burj Khalifa, the plans
featured observation decks with 18 to 20 mixed-use floors including
restaurants and a boutique hotel. Alabbar said the new structure would
be an "elegant monument" adding value to other property in the area.
The design will evoke an image of a minaret whilst anchored
to the ground with huge cables and sculpted gardens beneath. The Burj
Khalifa was completed in January 2010 but is set to be surpassed as the
world's tallest building by a new structure in Saudi Arabia.
In November 2015 Saudi Arabia's billionaire prince Alwaleed
bin Talal and his holding company Kingdom Holding Co secured $2bn
(£1.33bn) to complete Jeddah Tower which will reach more than 1km in height (almost 3,300 feet).
But even the Jeddah Tower would be dwarfed by the Sky Mile Tower
set to be built in Tokyo Bay, doubling the height of the Burj Khalifa.
The mini-city, which has a completion date of 2045, would reach a height
of 5,577ft and house around 55,000 people.
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