# Nakheel draws up secret plan for mile-high tower!



## ragga (Jan 23, 2005)

this project has been put on hold / cancelled, due to the wind factor, dubai would be risking a major disaster after spending alot of money --- dubai cannot risk anything like this at its early stage of becoming a "man" -- remember its still in its baby stages.


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## dubaiflo (Jan 3, 2005)

agree . how do you know though?!? 
once again...
btw is this al burj or a new one or an al burj concept ?


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## fahed (Nov 10, 2004)

I like your way of using similes ragga, but I would rather say a "woman" than a "man" for two reasons:

1. Dubai is a feminine name/noun (at least in Arabic)

2. Beauty is measured for women not men


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## malec (Apr 17, 2005)

Pie in the sky?
Monday, 10 October 2005
7DAYS

Dubai was nearly home to one of the most ambitious projects of all time, a 1600-metre tall tower, according to a report in yesterday’s construction Week magazine.

The building, had it gone past the planning stage, would have been more than twice the height of the Burj Dubai, Emaar’s current attempt to build the world’s tallest structure, and five-times the size of the Burj Al Arab, Jumeirah’s iconic seven-star hotel.

Behind the project was Nakheel, the company behind the Palm projects, and The World. Construction Week said that it has seen a memo revealing details of the, almost unbelievable, project.

More than just an idea Nakheel went as far as employing top Engineers and designers from Bovis Lend Lease and Thornton Tomasetti with whom they discussed drawings for the tower.

Among the three outline designs that were at that point under consideration, was one that incorporated an entertainment ride at the top of the building - where part of the thrill would be generated from the sway of the structure.

Japanese contractor Taisei Construction was to build the tower and architects PEI Partnership were employed by Nakheel to draw up the plans.

It is not clear where the project stands at the moment, but, according to Construction Week, it is likely to have been shelved when new chief executive James Wilson took over at Nakheel in February.

While some might see the project as evdence that Nakheel was losing touch with reality last year, a number of structural engineer’s told Construction Week that such a project is within the bounds of possibility.

“I can’t see a reason why this (constructing a mile high building) cannot be done, but I don’t think we will see a step change, it will be more incremental,” said Mohsen Zikri, director at the London office of Arup. “We need to have time to develop the design and construction skills that are needed.”
7DAYS

The main hurdle to completing such a project are not logistical, but financial, according to Kamran Moazami, director of WSP Cantor Seinuk, the designer of the Freedom Tower in New York and the Shard of Glass in London.

“As a structural engineer I would like to see it, but I’m not sure it is something people would want to build. Most super tall buildings lose money,” he told Construction Week.

The first person to propose a building of this scale was when Frank Lloyd Wright, the visionary behind a 528-storey building called Mile-High Illinois in the 1950s.

Other companies to have looked at the idea include US-based Pickard Chilton, which has an ongoing research project into the idea.

The most outlandish proposal of all time came from Taisei Corporation of Japan, which drew up plans for a 4000 metre-high structure called X-Seed 4000. It would have had a whopping 800 storeys, if it had ever made it beyond the drawing board.

If Nakheel was to get the project off the ground it would face some enormous technical challenges.

“As the building becomes taller, you encounter more and more problems and some of these are to do with wind,” Arup director Mohsen Zikri told Construction Week. “ When the building sways, you need to counteract it, because if you are not careful you will feel discomfort.

“The top of a super-tall building can move by a metre or more, but what is more important than sway is acceleration. “You have to dampen this by mechanical means,” says Zikri.

“If you imagine a cylinder and at the top, you have a piece of wire hanging down with a weight at the bottom. The weight sinks in a tank of water at the bottom or another viscous liquid, so the movement of the building is counteracted by the resistance of the liquid.

“We have used this approach in Hong Kong, using liquid silicon,” he says. Taipei 101, currently the world’s tallest tower, also has a tuned mass damping system.

The use of tuned mass damping systems ensure that lateral movement and acceleration in a building does not cause excessive discomfort or feelings of nausea for residents or office workers.

However, one of the most challenging issues related to building super-tall skyscrapers is the use of elevators. Firstly, they cannot move beyond a certain speed before they become highly uncomfortable for their passengers.

Currently the fastest lifts in the world can move at a rate of around 12 metres per second, at speed that would get them to the top of a mile high tower in two minutes, assuming there was one lift that could take them the whole way.

In super-tall buildings thousands of people tend to arrive and leave at the same time, making it logistically very difficult to manage.

“With taller buildings you need a bigger core for all the lifts that are required so it is not very efficient because your net to gross area is lousy, as the core has to get bigger to allow enough lifts for people to get in and out,” said Zikri. Nakheel was not available to comment on the Contsruction Week report.

THE TALLEST

* Taipei 101, Taiwan, 508m

* Petronas Towers, Indonesia, 452m

* Sears Tower, Chicago, 442m

* Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai, 420m

* IFC, Hong Kong, 413m

* CITIC Plaza, China, 391m

* Shun Hing Square, China, 384m

* Empire State Building, 381m

* Central Plaza, Hong Kong, 309m

* Empire State Building, 381m




















http://www.7days.ae/feature/pie-in-the-sky-.html

Are they using SSP diagrams?


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## malec (Apr 17, 2005)

So this thing was shelved about half a year ago.


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## dubaiflo (Jan 3, 2005)

well at least it is quite ok somebody with a lot of money starts to think about such building at least.


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## Dubai-Lover (Jul 4, 2004)

strange
one day after the article from construction week, to which 7 days refers, they tell us a completely different story

also the renders have been taken from ssp and they mixed up some towers there!

how relibale :|


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## Jue (Mar 28, 2003)

The tower is not impossible, just uneconomical. It sure created headlines as well as anyone could have hoped, though.


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## Krazy (Apr 27, 2004)

is there a website for the construction week magazine?


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## Krazy (Apr 27, 2004)

maybe we shud change the height of Al Burj to 1600m on emporis and put the status as proposed :hilarious

can u imagine wot the new yorkers' faces wud look like when they wud see that :hilarious


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## dubaiflo (Jan 3, 2005)

no add a new tower with 1600m please :lol:

there is a constuction week website..but i cannot remember ...
altin knows i think.


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## Dubai-Lover (Jul 4, 2004)

website for construction week is www.itp.net
quite helpful sometimes

if we're lucky emaar builds the 1/2 mile tower and nakheel the 1-mile tower


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