Giant Investment defies the crisis

On January 4, inaugurated the world's tallest building, Burj Dubai, while Dubai is shaken by a financial crisis. With its 160 floors and approximately 800 meters turn the competitors by a wide margin. It is 300 feet higher than Taipei 101, which had the old record. But yesterday was really the limit where it is not worthwhile to build higher?
After the two towers at the World Trade Center was destroyed in the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the world's architects, engineers and financiers themselves a hefty think. So they began to build super-tall towers, STT.

The word skyscraper was like no longer enough to describe the new buildings and the challenges they pose. Super High listed buildings which are over 300 meters.
There were 324 buildings in the world that was higher than 150 meters in 1980. Fifteen years later, in 1995, was the 820th But at the end of 2008 there were 2922 such buildings, according to Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) in Chicago, which has become the internationally recognized body that determines which buildings are up to.

The number of really high buildings has thus been an increase of 350 percent in ten years. While 85 percent of all the tall buildings were in North America in 1980, built the new giants worldwide. In late 2008, North America's share dropped to 30 percent. Middle East, which barely had a single house over 150 meters a decade ago, today 10 percent of the super-high buildings.

Burj Dubai shares the fate of many other buildings that had the title of world's tallest building - they seem to always be available concurrent with an economic crisis. Chrysler Building and Empire State Building was finished in 1930, one year after the great stock market crash.

World Trade Center and Sears Tower in Chicago was inaugurated during the first oil crisis in 1973-74 while the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was nearly finished when the Asian crisis broke out.

And just one month before the Burj Dubai was inaugurated emirate of Dubai was forced to get an emergency loan of ten billion from its rich neighbor, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. 
The opening ceremony was originally scheduled for 2008, but has been delayed. Now, January 4 chosen for the current ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, which celebrates its four year anniversary on the throne. He had not anticipated that there would be in the middle of a real estate crisis.

The first sign of the looming crisis came just over a year ago, on 4 December 2008, when the state-owned real estate company Meera Embargoed plans to build a "city-of-town" that would cost 95 billion dollars and called Jumeirah Gardens.

Proleads Market analysts have estimated that projects worth 582 billion dollars or 45 percent of all planned projects have been mothballed in Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates.

The owner of the Burj Dubai, Emaar, has not said what percentage of the building is rented out.It is the centerpiece of what will become the world's largest indoor retail center, with 1200 stores. 30,000 apartments being built also in the area.

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's has lowered Emaar bonds to junk status, as well as Dubai Holdings, which is behind the artificial islands, The Palm and The World, with its luxury homes.

Since it can take ten years to plan and implement the construction of a super-high building as Burj Dubai, it is not so easy to fill in the business cycle.

The mandate to lead the project went to Turner International, which has responsibility for many of the highest and most complex buildings in the world. Korean Samsung is the contractor carrying out construction work, together with the Belgian Besix and Dubai Company Arabtec.

The highest structure built by man will be inaugurated in a few days. Concrete and steel giant Burj Dubai measuring over 800 meters. Photo: Scanpix

Dubai's spectacular building
But the jewel in the crown is (still) the world's tallest building. Burj Dubai is the spire that rises 818 meters above sea level. Planned opening is January 2010, but the date has been postponed several times.

To accommodate the construction of Burj Dubai in 48 months did not take more than three days to build each floor. Because of the heat concrete work could take place only at night, when "only" 30 degrees Celsius. It was still too much for the concrete, which is cooled down by mixed into ice.

The higher a building is, the greater part of the building must be used for elevators. Burj Dubai will have the world's fastest elevators, which will go ten meters per second. There are also double-deck elevators, with seating for 21 people each.

Land price is a determining factor, but ultimately becomes the house so high that it really pays to build a floor, as it means that other investment is required. But, as Jason Barr, at Rutgers University in Newark, points out:

-Skyscrapers are not just tall houses. They are symbols and works of art. Together they create a separate entity - a city skyline - which has its own symbolism and aesthetics.

-Skyscrapers are used to demonstrate the strength of those who build them, whether it is the speculative real estate companies, large international companies or authorities. They will not only yield profits, but also status. For this reason, the height is a strategic element.