Work starts on Dubai tower set to be world’s tallest

DUBAI - Construction has begun in the Gulf Arab city of Dubai on a skyscraper which aims to be the tallest building in the world on completion in three years' time.

"This will be the tallest building in the world when finished," Naaman Atallah, sales manager for its owner Emaar , told journalists on a tour of the site.

The Burj Dubai would dwarf the 553m CN Tower in Toronto and planned high-rises in Shanghai and New York, he said.

Some 4000 workers and 100 cranes have gathered to build the hotel, residential and shopping complex of at least 700m which will include over 1000 luxury apartments.

The exact height is being kept a secret, partly for fear of rival bids to be the tallest free-standing building, and because by 2008 it might be technologically possible to go even higher.

Dubai-based architects say they expect Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower) to hit at least 800m. Emaar said the tower alone would cost at least $1 ($1.39) billion to construct, excluding the complex's malls, lakes and smaller tower blocs.

Emaar, which recently posted record profits, is one of the firms leading a construction boom in Dubai, a member of the United Arab Emirates federation and one-third owner of Emaar.

"The design has pushed the limits of what technology can achieve, no one has gone that high before. You have to invent new elevators that can sustain such heights," Atallah said, adding the lift units are "still being designed as we speak".

The tower allows for a worst-case scenario wind-sway factor of six feet on its top floors. "But you won't feel it unless you look out of the window," Atallah said. "There's no fear that anything will collapse, it's out of the question."

Designed by a US-based consultancy, the tower employs the geometric patterns of Islamic architecture around a base in the form of a six-petalled desert flower.

The plans show an ambitious single structure comprising conjoined tube-shaped towers with the kind of space-age look seen in the New Age album covers of 70s progressive rock bands.

"For the construction we're using tried and tested techniques, but because of the height we're pushing things to engineering extremes," said Greg Sang, senior on-site manager.

"We're pumping concrete to a record height ... it could take 30 minutes to reach the top, so we need to play with the mix to keep it fluid. We also need extremely powerful concrete pumps to pump these distances."

- REUTERS