The tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, is officially open for business, rising almost a kilometre into the Dubai sky and dwarfing the previous tallest, the Taipei 101 by over three hundred metres.
Although it was officially unveiled in a lavish ceremony, the building opens its doors at a time when many of those who forked out for one of the many apartments it houses face immediate losses on their investments after a recent slump in Dubai property prices. Despite this, Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties, the state-owned developer said Burj Khalifa was 'another demonstration of Dubai's ability to achieve what few people thought possible' and that it 'represents the determination and optimism of Dubai as a truly world city. It is a powerful symbol for the entire Arab world.' Powerful it may be and tall it certainly is, but is it good architecture?
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the architects behind the building originally known as the Burj Dubai, based the design on their own Tower Palace Three in Seoul, Korea, and the building was originally intended to be entirely residential. The design is said to have been influenced by Islamic architecture, but the influences are not immediately obvious as Islamic architecture boasts some of the most ornate and beautiful buildings in the world. Design architect Adrian Smith also said that the hymenocallis flower, native to Dubai, was the inspiration for the triple-lobed footprint of the building, which is more readily apparent.
For a building so tall, it actually doesn't appear monstrously large – until, of course, you compare it to the rest of the Dubai skyline. It's also not as outlandish as some of the other architectural experiments Dubai has embarked upon. Neither is it ugly. In fact, it looks rather elegant. Steve Rose, writing in The Guardian, called it 'surely the best-looking tall building since New York's Chrysler and the Empire State in the 1930s'. Praise indeed, but one can't help but wonder what somebody like Santiago Calatrava, Steven Holl or Jean Nouvel would have come up with. Perhaps something outlandish, but we'll never know.
To be honest, I like it very much and I admire the work that went into it, but compared to the Infinity Tower, also in Dubai and also by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, I can't help wishing for something…more. Considering it is the world's tallest building, however – and a nice looking one at that – I accept that I may be wanting a little too much.
Richard Knobbs