Nakheel announces kilometre high skyscraper

The structure will be the centre-piece of an inner-city harbour set to become the emirate's new, unofficial capital


After more than three years on the drawing board, Nakheel has announced that it is to build a skyscraper that will be more than one kilometre high, the tallest in the world — but only minutes down the road from the current tallest building in the world, the Burj Dubai.

The tower will be the centrepiece of the Nakheel Harbour and Tower development, which is planned close to Ibn Battuta shopping mall on the Sheikh Zayed Road.

Industry insiders have said that the tower could reach as high as 1.4 kilometres when finished, making it almost double the height of Emaar Properties’ Burj Dubai, which is expected to reach over 800 metres when completed towards the end of next year.

Nakheel declined to disclose the cost of the tower, which has been designed by Australian architects Woods Bagot, or the overall value of the development, which will include 40 other towers of between 20 and 90 floors, along with a canal system and harbour.

“It will truly be a magnificent engineering feat,” said Chris O’Donnell, the chief executive of Nakheel.

Foundation work on the tower is already under way and is expected to take three years to complete.

Nakheel will finance the development through a combination of pre-sales of apartments, the sale of 270 hectares of land surrounding the project and bank loans.

Despite the global credit crunch and a slowdown in financing for construction projects, Mr O’Donnell said he was confident that the project would be built successfully, owing to the fact it would be developed over 10 years. “What’s happening globally is just a normal economic cycle,” he said.

“There might be a slowdown but there definitely won’t be a crash as the fundamentals of the Middle East market are just too strong. A building project of this type was always going to take 10 years, and we will monitor the economic climate over that period when determining funding for the project.”

Mr O’Donnell added that the current global economic slowdown would result in a more discerning investor.

“Dubai has matured rapidly and property buyers are becoming increasingly discerning. They will choose to buy property that is by the water, close to transport hubs or within an iconic project,” he said

“In these times there will also be a flight to quality.”

But Nakheel could be outshone in the next few days at this week’s Cityscape if Meraas, the private equity firm of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announces its tall tower. An advertisement on the Cityscape website yesterday showed a teaser image of the Atrium City Tower, a design by Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill that would rise higher than any tower ever built.

Other tall towers planned for the Middle East include a kilometre-high tower in Saudi Arabia, along with another kilometre-high tower in Kuwait’s City of Silk development.

Tall Order: Super Skyscraper Plan

It will be more than 1km high, have 150 lifts and will take over 10 years to construct, say the developers of what could become the world's tallest building.

The Islamic design-inspired Nakheel Tower will be the centre piece of a multi-billion pound inner-city harbour development in Dubai.

Its makers claim it will be so tall that the tower will experience five different microclimatic conditions above its height.

And high speed shuttle lifts will mean people will be able to see the sunset twice - from the bottom and again from the top of the building.

Nakheel - the company that created man-made islands in the shapes of a palm tree and the world - is behind the build.

Its chief executive officer, Christopher O'Donnell, cautiously told a news conference: "From our perspective, we are building a tower that's going to be over 1km in height.

"This is a complete iconic development. It may be the tallest. Someone may build something taller."

But "tallest building" claims are notoriously difficult to make. Debates about what counts as a candidate include whether buildings under construction should be considered and whether roof-top antennas count.

What is certain is that the tower will climb above the current holder of the "world's tallest building" position - the Emirate's own Burj Dubai.

Asked if the firm was worried about embarking on such a development during a global financial crisis, Mr O'Donnell said: "It was always going to be a project that would take 10 years-plus.

"When you go about trying to fund a project like this, you have to take account of the economic cycles."

The company would not comment on how much the tower will cost to build.

Also:

Nakheel is to trump rival Emaar Properties in the contest to build the world's tallest building, with the Dubai-owned developer on Sunday unveiling plans for a tower that will dwarf the Burj Dubai.

Nakheel is poised to build a tower that will be more than one kilometre high, as part of a 140 billion-dirham ($38.12 billion) project that will include the world’s first inner city harbour, company executives said.

Emaar's Burj Dubai, currently the tallest man made structure in the world at over 630 metres, is expected to be up to 900 metres tall upon completion in early 2009. The company has refused to reveal its final height.

Latest Al Burj Tall Tower render

Here is the latest render of what the Al Burj tower might look like. The tower is suppose to be 1400 meters, 1.4 km tall when completed. But if you put the renders in photoshop and count pixels it only comes out to about 1200 meters...

Dubai Vertical City,2.4KM (1.5 Miles) Tall

Dubai - Stretching its six intertwining building components into a tower 2.4 kilometres high, Dubai City Tower is expected to be the latest architectural vision to capture the attention of citizens. The ‘Vertical City’, as it is described, is an architect’s proposal that began circulating in emails and at a skycraper forum last week, but its origins are yet to be determined The professional project pitch details 400 habitable stories, topped by a 400m energy-producing spire, making it 2.4km high. By comparison, Emaar’s Burj Dubai is largely predicted to be around 800m high and 160 floors. A “mile-high tower” in Jeddah has been planned by Kingdom Holdings, while Nakheel is building Al Burj, which, according to project sources, will have a final height of 1.28km, although the developer is keeping the details under wraps.


But neither an architect nor a developer detailed on the plans for the Dubai City Tower. Major developers Emaar, Nakheel, Dubai Properties and Damac categorically denied to Khaleej Times any involvement or awareness of the project. However, the proposal of such an engineering feat is indicative of the environment of possibilities Dubai has created for tall towers, according to Steven Oehme, Regional Director of Value Management and Sustainability at Hyder Consulting Middle East. “It is certainly possible,” Oehme said. “You can’t just use today’s technology, but it can be planned and the possibilities are there. Fifteen years ago, there was nothing even half the height of the Burj Dubai.” The time frame from drawing board to construction and completion for such developments, in this case termed a super-tall skyscraper, often banks on future technologies.


A “Mega-city Pyramid” proposed for Tokyo Bay in Japan needs a structure of incredibly strong, light materials still being developed. While Burj Dubai is expected to be completed in September 2009, five years after the construction started, the one-kilometre-high tower Mubarak Al Kabir in Kuwait is estimated to take 25 years to complete since its announcement was made last year. Oehme said the flurry of architect proposals, and buildings under construction, could speed up technology and encourage more investment in tall towers. “People didn’t really see the significance of building that tall,” he said. “There wasn’t an environment that supported a building that tall. The Petronas Towers in Malaysia changed all that.” They held the mantle for nearly a decade.”


Now, in the Gulf region, Burj Dubai is a year from completion. Khaleej Times has learnt Al Burj plans are being finalised and recently Timelinks announced plans for the Ziggurat, a 1.2-kilometre-high pyramid city to house one million people. Oehme said the feasibility of a project like Dubai City Tower was highly technical and wondered how many of the proposals would materialise. “It’s not just a matter of scaling things up. Every factor has to be considered. In ten years there could be two or three tall towers in the region or there could be 20 or 30. But now, our understanding of tall towers is enormous,” Oehme said.

Al Burj Photo update September 6th 2008

Here is two photos of the current cunstruction at the Al Burj aka Tall Tower site. You can now clearly see the future circle shaped floorplate, they put steelframes in the holes just like they did with the Chicago Spire.