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Construction on the tallest skyscraper in the world is underway.
On October 10, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the prime minister of Dubai, broke ground on the new building, called the Tower at Dubai Creek Harbour.
The proposed 3,045-foot building will beat the city's current record-holding skyscraper, the 2717-foot-tall Burj Khalifa, by 328 feet.
The building is designed by famed Spanish-Swiss architect Santiago Calatrava, who was also behind the World Trade Center Transportation Hub in New York and the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro. The tower is being built next to the Dubai Creek in Downtown Dubai, a mere six miles away from the Dubai International Airport. It will cost $1 billion to construct.
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Courtesy of Emaar
Renderings of the building show it as a minaret-like spire held down by a thick web of cables. According to Inhabitat, the building is part of the Dubai Creek Harbor development, a real estate project led by developer Emaar Properties that is expected to double the size of Dubai's downtown.
Much like the Burj Khalifa, the new tower will contain a mixture of luxury residences and commercial spaces catering to travelers and businesspeople. The building will also feature garden terraces reminiscent of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and observation decks that will encircle the building, giving a 360-degree view of the city's skyline.
To ensure the building's safety, Emaar Properties commissioned 12 wind-engineering tests and seismic studies to make sure the building will be stable under different conditions. Because the building will be the first cable-tethered structure of its height, the wind tests had to be tailored to accommodate the tower's unprecedented size and shape.
Courtesy of Emaar
"From the materials selection to the technology used, every aspect of The Tower has been designed and developed according to the strictest international safety standards," Santiago Calatrava said in a statement after the ground breaking.
Emaar expects the building to be completed in 2020.
You can see video renderings of the tower below.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/AC02sSzCAI4
Width: 800px
Height: 450px
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