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There's nothing like a good bit of Dubai excess, but this just isn't impressive enough to justify the profligacy: the Palazzo Versace hotel is building a beach with refrigerated sand.
Oh, wow. Apparently, in May, a Brit and a Frenchman snuck on to the under-construction Burj Dubai and BASE jumped from it at 650 metres up. Now, there's video available of their infiltration, jump and subsequent escape. The footage from up top and the jump is just incredible stuff. I wish I had the cajones to do something like this. Although my favourite part of the video may be the footnote at the end; wait for it, it's worth it. [Current via Neatorama]
The Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world, is at 160 stories and counting, with the tower due to be complete next September. But it's not the only tower under construction in Dubai, not by a longshot. No, the city appears to be sprouting up from the ground like a bunch of weeds, with as many cranes as buildings. And now, The Big Picture has nearly 30 amazing shots of the city in transition. Hit the jump for another of my favourites and then head over to The Big Picture for the rest.
Oh look, another insane tower planned for Dubai! This one is dubbed the Anara Tower, and while it's not going to be the tallest in the world (it'll be about 150 metres shorter than the Burj Dubai at 655 metres), it's still incredible all on its own.
If you thought the Leaning Tower of Pisa was messed up, get a load of the Capital Gate tower currently being constructed in Abu Dhabi. Actually, saying it is "messed up" is incorrect given that the 18 degree westward incline was completely intentional. In fact, the project's architects have submitted a joint application to the Guinness Book of Records to recognise the tower as the 'most inclined in the world.' In order to support the awkward angle of the 35-story structure, the design called for a foundation of extremely dense reinforced steel mesh and 490 piles sunk nearly 30 metres into the ground. Hmmm...I hope Abu Dhabi doesn't get a lot of earthquakes. [World Architecture News via The Design Blog]
At just under 1.5 million square metres, Dubai's International Airport Terminal 3 has not only became the shiniest airport terminal ever, but it's also the largest in the world, beating the 984,000 of the previous record holder, the firebreathing Olympic terminal 3 at Beijing International Airport.
Forget the 1,000 metre-high 200-floor Nakheel Tower because it's no longer going to be the highest skyscraper in the world. The new upcoming beast is this amazing 2.5km-high skyscraper planned for the Jumeirah City project in Dubai. The building is so tall that its main elevator is in fact a vertical 200kph bullet train. This city-in-a-skyscraper will consume 37,000MWH/year, with a 15MW peak usage, but as the plans show, it has been designed to generate most of it using wind, thermal, and solar power:
As you know, we always wonder at the grandeur of Dubai's buildings: the tallest buildings in the world, the longest bridges, and the weirdest architecture imaginable. When Addy and I were there last year, we marvelled at this explosion of concrete, glass, and steel with our own eyes. But we never saw the other side, the misery behind the splendour, the 300,000 illegal almost-slaves who live crammed into labour camps, working--and often dying or getting injured--for a few dollars a day. Fortunately, the Guardian's correspondant Ghaith Abdul-Ahad reminds us about it.
It's not built quite yet, but Tameer Holding is constructing the world's largest LED screen in Dubai for a commercial office building named The Podium. The gigantic display will be implemented as the building's facade, reaching 33 stories into the sky and maintaining visibility up to a mile away. (Needless to say, that's a lot bigger than we are building displays in America.)
When it's finished in ten years, Dubai's latest architectural monolith will be the tallest skyscraper in the world. At more than one kilometer high (3,280 feet), the Nakheel Tower will have around two hundred floors. Like always, the company behind the project is very secretive about the actual size of the leviathan, in order to beat other buildings for as long as possible, but you can see how it compares to Burj Dubai and other the rest of giant towers here:
