Titanic Tower: The World's First Kilometre-Tall Tower!
Financial markets may be sinking globally, but Dubai is circumventing the icebergs with the world’s first kilometre-tall tower, says Andre Cooray
The sky’s the limit for United Arab Emirates (UAE) real-estate giant Nakheel which has announced plans to build the tallest building in the world that will soar to a height of more than one kilometre. The tower will be erected in the heart of new Dubai along with Nakheel Harbour, the world’s first inner city harbour.
“Dubai stands up for its reputation of revealing unbelievable projects. The day markets were crashing all around the world following a global financial crisis, Nakheel announces the launch of the Nakheel Tower. And many more massive projects were launched that week at Cityscape, the biggest property show in the UAE,” says Michael Lahyani, CEO and Managing Director of squarefoot.com.hk’s Dubai-based sister company propertyfinder.ae.
Nakheel Tower and Harbour is expected to take a little over ten years to complete, and its construction will require the manpower of 30,000 workers. In this mammoth task, Nakheel are using, for the first time, four separate foundations with four individual cores instead of one (used by regular buildings). If all the tower’s reinforcing bars were put together it would extend from Dubai to New York - the equivalent to half way across the world.
Taking on such an unprecedented architectural feat is nothing new for Nakheel which is the radical property innovator behind The Palms (three palm tree-shaped man-made islands off the coast of Dubai) and The World (a man-made archipelago of 300 islands constructed in the shape of a world map, also located off the Dubai coast).
With the Nakheel Tower, the developer’s vision is to build an entire society in the sky complete with shops, gardens and bridges. There will be more than 19,000 residential units ranging from ‘affordable’ apartments to luxury penthouses and villas. The tower will boast an obscenely high-star rated hotel right at the top and as many as 10,000 car parking spaces. With more than 200 floors, the views will be simply breathtaking: this structure will not just scrape the sky - it will be in the sky.
“Nakheel Tower and Harbour will be Dubai’s capital - there is nothing like it in Dubai. We have focused on creating a true community - a location for working, relaxing and entertainment and for art and culture. All of this is concentrated in one area,” says Chris O’ Donnell, Nakheel’s CEO.
Due to its extraordinary height, the tower will allow residents to experience different climates on different levels. For example, the temperature on the highest level could be as much as 10 degrees below that of lower floors. Special high-speed shuttle lifts will take people from the ground floor to the observation deck - the highest point accessible to the public - in less than four minutes. Incredibly this will make it possible for visitors to see the sun set twice in the same day - once from the bottom and a second time from the top.
“This development is about far more than the tower alone. What has been accomplished in Dubai so far is incredible, and this is a new era for the city,” O’ Donnell explains. “The way in which the finances and the energy of the city have been channelled into creating this community and a tower of this nature is symbolic of those achievements.”
A Nakheel spokesperson said that land plots will be available for sale in 2009, though prices have yet to be released. “Nakheel’s iconic projects attract investors from all over the world, and Hong Kong and South East Asia is well represented in our investor portfolio,” the spokesperson added.
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