The world’s tallest building made with Guardian glass Story by Guardian Glass The world’s tallest building made with Guardian glass
Product Spec Sheet

ElementBrandProduct Name
Manufacturer of duraTRAIN Rubber Fitness TilessofSURFACES Inc.
ManufacturersVETEDY
manufacturer door handlesOlivari B. spa
ManufacturersMosa
Blind manufacturerHunter Douglas Architectural
SteelArcelorMittal Construction

Product Spec Sheet
Manufacturer of duraTRAIN Rubber Fitness Tiles
Manufacturers
manufacturer door handles
Manufacturers
by Mosa
Blind manufacturer

Burj Khalifa

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill SOM as Architects

Burj Khalifa, formerly Burj Dubai, at the center of a large-scale development, is the tallest building in the world. The design combines cultural influences with cutting-edge technology to achieve a high-performance building. Its massing is manipulated in the vertical dimension to minimize the impact of wind on the tower's movement.


The design for the 270,000 square meter Burj Khalifa (formerly Burj Dubai) combines historical and cultural influences with cutting edge technology to achieve a high-performance building. Some of these technologies are:


* High performance glazing with Low E coating: A low-emissivity glass provides Burj Khalifa with enhanced thermal insulation against high ambient temperatures of Dubai.


* Sky sourced ventilation: Cooler air temperatures, reduced air density, and reduced relative humidity at the top of the building allow for “sky-sourced” sustainability innovations. When ventilation air is withdrawn at the top of the building, it requires less energy for air conditioning, ventilation, and dehumidification.


* Condensate recovery system: Burj Khalifa has one of the largest condensate recovery systems in the world. Diverting and reusing water from air conditioning condensate discharge prevents it from entering the wastewater stream and reduces the need for municipal potable water. Estimated annual savings are equal in volume to 14 Olympic sized swimming pools.


* Higher voltage power up in building: Conduction of electric power using higher voltage reduces energy losses and increases energy efficiency when compared to low voltage energy distribution.


* Electronic metering: Individual electric energy monitoring systems enable ongoing energy optimization of the tower’s systems over its lifetime. This will result in a reduction of Burj Khalifa's energy related environmental impact.


* Smart lighting and mechanical control: Burj Khalifa's building management system (BMS) provides the tower with low operational costs, a more efficient use of building resources and services, good control of internal comfort conditions, effective monitoring and targeting of energy consumption.


* Stack effect controls: Great thermal differences between the building’s interior and exterior generate a stack effect. Burj Khalifa was designed to passively control these forces, reducing the need for mechanical means of pressurization while saving energy.


Learning from the design and construction processes of Burj Khalifa, SOM is currently applying similar technologies to new projects. For example, the new DMC Tower in Seoul will make use of the naturally occurring wind stack effect. By generating a percentage of the building’s power demand using wind turbines, the design will reduce municipal energy use to a fraction of a supertall building’s typical consumption.


Other supertall structures are also learning from Burj Khalifa. In the world’s tallest building, SOM has implemented new ways to increase structural and construction efficiencies while reducing material use and waste. Lessons learned from Burj Khalifa will help to decrease the environmental impact associated with construction and raw material extraction.


The Burj Dubai Tower, when completed, will be the world’s tallest structure. The superstructure is currently under construction and as of the start of 2007 has reached near 100 stories. The final height of the building is a “well-guarded secret.” The height of the multi-use skyscraper will “comfortably” exceed the current record holder of 509 meter (1,671 ft) tall Taipei 101. The 280,000 m2 reinforced concrete multi-use Tower is utilized for Retail, a Giorgio Armani Hotel, Residential, and Office. The goal of the Burj Dubai Tower is not simply to be the world’s highest building; it’s to embody the world’s highest aspirations.


Designers purposely shaped the structural concrete Burj Dubai—“Y” shape in plan—to reduce the wind forces on the tower, as well as to keep the structure simple and foster constructability. The structural system can be described a “buttressed” core. Each wing, with its own high performance concrete core and perimeter columns, buttresses the others via a six-sided central core, or hexagonal hub. The result is a tower that is extremely stiff torsionally. SOM applied a rigorous geometry to the tower that aligned all the common central core and column elements to form a building.


Each tier of the building steps back in a spiral stepping pattern up the building. The setbacks are organized with the Tower’s grid, such that the building stepping is accomplished by aligning columns above with walls below to provide a smooth load path. This allows the construction to proceed without the normal delays associated with column transfers.


The setbacks are organized such that the Tower’s width to change at each setback. The advantage of the stepping and shaping is to “confuse the wind.” The wind vortexes never get organized because at each new tier the wind encounters a different building shape.


The 280,000 m2 (3,000,000 ft2) Tower and 185,000 m2 (2,000,000 ft2) Podium structures are currently under construction and the project is scheduled for topping out in 2008.

Tallest man-made structure in the world

Knauf Danoline as Manufacturers

With its 829.8 metres, Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the tallest building in the world. This iconic, award-winning architecture has pushed the boundaries of building design and engineering. Knauf Danoline has contributed to this magnificent building by providing acoustic solutions over the travelators in the exit passage of the tower. In addition to excellent sound absorption and acoustic comfort, Designpanel Micro also ensures a calm simplistic ceiling surface to complement the rest of the interior design.

The world’s tallest building made with Guardian glass

Guardian Glass as Manufacturers

Selected by an international jury of engineers and property specialists, the Burj Khalifa (formerly Burj Dubai) is the world’s tallest building at 800 meters or 2,650 feet high. The building features more than 174,000 square meters of Guardian SunGuard Solar Silver 20 and Guardian ClimaGuard NLT Low-E. 


“It is an honor to have our glass on this incredible building, which has been recognized by experts as one of the best highrises in the world” said Pablo Trincado - Marketing & Communication Manager for Europe “At Guardian, we know that quality materials make a great structures and were pleased to meet the exacting specifications necessary to make this one-of-a-kind project a work of art.”


The International Highrise Award, one of the world’s most prestigious architectural prizes for highrise structures, is open to architects and developers, whose buildings must be at least 100 meters high and have been commissioned within the last two years. After extensive research, Deutsches Architekturmuseum nominated 27 high-rise projects from 16 different countries for the 2010 competition; the jury then judged them in line with six fundamental criteria:


· pioneering design

· aesthetics

· integration into the urban setting

· sustainability

· innovative technology

· cost efficiency


According to award judges, “the Burj Khalifa represents high performance in contemporary high-rise architecture in several regards: Not only did the building convince the jury with its record height of 828 meters, but also in particular thanks to the new, innovative structural solution developer and the elevator technologies that were employed in order to enable the dream of a vertical city to be realized.”


Opened in January 2010, the building represents one of the largest orders of coated glass in Guardian history. Guardian plants in Germany and Luxembourg produced the coated glass. Built by Emaar Properties and designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill architects, the Burj Khalifa is at the center of Emaar’s mega project -- the $20 billion downtown development billed as the world’s most prestigious square kilometer. The building is a mix of residential and commercial with luxury apartments on levels 20-160 as well as offices and a boutique hotel above.

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