Burj al-Arab

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Burj al-Arab </br> The Arabian Tower
The Burj al-Arab is the world's tallest hotel.
Information
Location	Dubai, U.A.E.
Status	Complete
Constructed	1994-1999
Use	Hotel, Restaurant
Height
Antenna/Spire	321 m (1053 ft.)
Floor count	60
Companies
Architect	Atkins Middle East

The Burj al-Arab (Arabic: برج العرب, "Tower of the Arabs") is a luxury hotel in Dubai, the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates, and was briefly marketed as "the world's first seven-star hotel".

It was designed by Tom Wright of WS Atkins PLC. At 321 m (1053 feet), it is the tallest building used exclusively as a hotel.^[1] It stands on an artificial island 280 m (919 feet) out from Jumeirah beach, and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge.

The hotel was designed as an iconic structure, and symbolizes Dubai's urban transformation currently underway.

Dubai in Context

Dubai is one of seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, which formed in 1971, and is located on the Persian Gulf. Dubai City is a populous, modern city with skyscrapers, international commerce, and increasing levels of tourism.

Oil reserves were discovered in the 1960s, but oil revenues makes up only 6% of Dubai’s income, and the reserves are predicted to become exhausted by 2010. As such, Dubai has undertaken "the most spectacular and outlandish architectural experiment on the planet,” described as “Islamic fusion mixed with Singapore and Vegas.”^[2]

Through the state owned Nakheel Company, Dubai has undertaken several ambitious projects. The Palm Islands, three “giant artificial island[s] shaped like stylised date palm[s],” offer private beach property and luxury hotels.^[3] Nearby, The World (archipelago) offers private islands shaped like the countries of the world, another artificial island project under construction.

Dubai is also home to the construction project of the Burj Dubai, a skyscraper designed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill to be the tallest building in the world. Construction is expected to be completed in 2008, and while the exact height is a closely guarded secret to prevent competition, estimates range from 808 meters to over 940 meters. Such height would surpass the current tallest building in the world, the 509 meter tall Taipei 101. The Burj Dubai will be the center large development of 30,000 people, including hotels, parks, residential towers, and commercial property. Inside, there will be a Giorgio Armani Hotel, private apartments, and corporate office space.^[4]

Burj Al-Arab - Photo by Aymx.	The modern urban landscape of Dubai.	One of the Palm Islands resorts.	The World Private Islands in Dubai
The Burj Dubai, the World Tallest building, under construction.

History and description

“The client wanted a building that would become an iconic or symbolic statement for Dubai; this is very similar to Sydney with its Opera House, or Paris with the Eiffel Tower. It needed to be a building that would become synonymous with the name of the country.” -Architect Tom Wright^[1]

Construction of the hotel began in 1994, and its doors were opened to guests on December 1, 1999. It was built to resemble the sail of a dhow, a type of Arabian vessel. “Two wings spread in a V [to] from a vast "mast", while the space between them is enclosed in a massive atrium.” The design features a steel exoskeleton wrapped around a reinforced concrete tower, which “connect along a shored, reinforced concrete spine at the base of the V.” The building contains over 70,000 cubic meters of concrete and 9,000 tons of steel. ^[2]

• A Teflon-coated fiberglass sail curves across the front, creating an atrium inside. The sail is made of a material called Dyneon, spanning over 161,000 square feet, consists of two-layers, and is divided into twelve panels and installed vertically. The fabric is coated with DuPont Teflon to protect it from harsh desert heat, wind, and dirt; as a result, “the fabricators estimate that it will hold up for up to 50 years.” During the day, the white fabric allows a soft, milky light inside the hotel, whereas a clear glass front would produce blinding amounts of glare and a constantly increasing temperature. At night, both inside and outside, the fabric is lit up by color changing lights to enhance the atmosphere and distinctive look of the structure.^[3]

• The interior of the hotel is dominated by a massive atrium formed between the V shaped structure and its fabric sail, the tallest lobby in the world. The atrium takes up over one-third of interior space, and is over 182 meters tall.^[4] The atrium is so large, in fact, that designers had to take special action during the installation of the sail. To lower the interior temperature, the building was cooled by half degree increments over a period of three to six months. This was to prevent large amounts of “condensation or in fact even a rain cloud from forming in the hotel during the period of construction.” This task was accomplished by several cold air nozzles, which point down from the top of the ceiling, and blast a 1 meter cold air pocket down the inside of the sail. This creates a buffer zone, which controls the interior temperature without massive energy costs.^[5]

• Other features include a helipad, suspended near the top of the building, and a resaurant called Al Muntaha, (Arabic meaning "Highest" or "Ultimate"), which is 200 meters high and supported by a full cantilever that extends 27 meters from either side of the mast.

The Dyneon sail and helipad

The World's Tallest Atrium

Burj Al-Arab behind Al-Jumairah - Photo by Aymx

Site

Rather than construct the hotel on the mainland, the design plan calls for an artificial island 280 meters offshore. The building is on its own island simply to encourage its sense of exclusivity, privacy, and opulence. To secure a foundation, the builders drove 230 40-meter long concrete piles into the sand. The foundation is held in place not by bedrock, but by the friction of the sand and silt along the length of the piles.^[6]

Engineers created a surface layer of large rocks, which is circled with a concrete honey-comb pattern, which serves to protect the foundation from erosion.

The Burj al Arab artificial island

Profile from the beach

Interior

While the exterior of the Burj al Arab is expressed in terms of ultra-modern sculptural design, the interior guest space is a compilation of lavish and luxurious architectural styles from both the east and the west. The hotel claims itself as the first 7-star hotel in the world. The designation is pure hyperbole and self-promotion; however, the dominate interior design characteristics are opulence, luxury, and wealth.

The hotel boasts of 8,000 square meters of 22-carat gold leaf 24,000 square meters of 30 different types of marble.

Yet despite its size, the building holds only 28 double-storey floors which “accommodate the 202 bedroom suites.” Every guest room is actually a duplex suite. Even the smallest and least expensive option will cost around $900, while the penthouse costs up to $6,800.^[7] “Room” simply is not a fitting description, as the suites are in fact house size: they range in size from 1,800 to 8,400 square feet.

Suites feature design details that juxtapose east and west. Elegant, white Tuscan columns and a spiral staircase covered in marble with a wrought-iron gold leaf railing show influence from classicism and art nouveau. Spa-like bathrooms are accented by mosaic tile patterns on the floors and walls, with Arabian-influenced geometries, which are also found elsewhere in the building. In the mezzanine lobby, a fountain creates a “three-dimensional Islamic star pattern.”^[8] Pointed arches throughout, found in one of the hotel’s three restaurants, corridors between guest rooms, and at the top of the atrium recall a classic Arabian architectural design form.

Opulent 22-carat gold leaf

The Base of the Atrium with water fountain

Criticism

The Burj al Arab has has attracted criticism as well as praise, described as “a contradiction of sorts, considering how well-designed and impressive the construction ultimately proves to be.”^[9] The contradiction here seems to be related to the hotel’s extreme opulence. “This extraordinary investment in state-of-the-art construction technology stretches the limits of the ambitious urban imagination in an exercise that is largely due to the power of excessive wealth.” Yet it seems the criticism is at least somewhat off the mark, as it ignores the building’s iconic nature, as well as Dubai’s urban development as a whole.

Another critic includes the city of Dubai as well: “both the hotel and the city, after all, are monuments to the triumph of money over practicality. Both elevate style over substance.”^[10] Within ten years, Dubai will be the host of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Dubai, as well as a dozen artificial land projects. The result will change Dubai into an ultra-modern urban zone of commercialism and tourism. The building’s design cannot be faulted for trying to accomplish its goal of becoming synonomous with Dubai itself.

As an iconic architectural form, the Burj al Arab succeeds in implementing an elegant structural design. The white sail and exoskeleton, simple and refined, call to mind to the white marble heavily favored in Moghul architecture. The building becomes not only an icon for Dubai, but symbolizes the growing importance of capitalism as well. “Emulating the quality of palatial interiors, in an expression of wealth for the mainstream, a theatre of opulence is created in Burj al Arab … The result is a baroque effect.”^[11]

• As such, the building accomplishes its goals by

1. becoming a recognizable architectural form
2. serving as an icon for Dubai
3. symbolizing the on-going architectural transformation
4. symbolizing the wealth of the community

(previous information that needs to be integrated)

History and description

Construction of the hotel began in 1994, and its doors were opened to guests on December 1, 1999. It was built to resemble the sail of a dhow, a type of Arabian vessel. Near the top is a helipad, and extending from the other side of the hotel, over the ocean, is a restaurant called Al Muntaha (Arabic meaning "Highest" or "Ultimate") supported by cantilever. A remarkable element of its architecture is the outer beachward wall of the atrium, which is made of a woven, Teflon-coated fiberglass cloth.

The Burj al-Arab does not have ordinary rooms; rather it is divided into 202 duplex suites. The smallest suite occupies an area of 169 square metres (1,819 square feet), and the largest one covers 780 square metres (8,396 square feet). It is one of the most expensive hotels in the world to stay in. The cost of staying in a suite begins at $1,000 per night and increases to over $15,000 per night; the Royal Suite is the most expensive, at $28,000 per night. The total cost to build and furnish the hotel has never been released.

The Burj al-Arab features the tallest atrium lobby in the world (180 metres, or 590 feet). The atrium can accommodate the Dubai World Trade Center building, which, at 38 stories, was the tallest building in Dubai from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s.

The interior design was done by Khuan Chew, Design Principal of KCA International. Other projects by Khuan Chew include, the Sultan of Brunei's Palace, Dubai International Airport, Jumeirah Beach Resort Development, Madinat Resort and much more.

Notable attributes

A front on view of the Burj-al-Arab Hotel. The disk near the top of the tower is a helicopter landing pad.

Looking down at the upper lobby

One of the hotel suites

• The hotel's self-characterization as a "7-star" property is considered by travel professionals to be hyperbole, and an attempt to out-do a number of other hotels which claim "6-star" status, since all major travel guides and hotel rating systems, however, have a 5-star maximum. According to the hotel's official site, the Burj al Arab is a "5-star deluxe hotel".
• One of its restaurants, the Al Muntaha , is located 200 metres above the Persian Gulf, offering a view of Dubai. It is accessed by a panoramic elevator.
• Another restaurant, the Al Mahara (Arabic "The Oyster"), which is accessed via a simulated submarine voyage, features a large seawater aquarium, holding roughly 35,000 cubic feet (over one million liters) of water. The tank, made of plexiglass in order to reduce the magnification effect, is about 18 cm (7.5 inches) thick. The restaurant was also voted among the top ten best restaurants of the world by Condé Nast Traveler.
• The building's external lighting scheme can vary from white to multicolored, changing every 30 minutes. Occasionally there is a light show, where colors interchange rapidly. During the period of mourning following the death of Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum in January 2006, the light show and some water features were turned off.
• The architect and engineering consultant for the project was Atkins, the UK's largest multidisciplinary consultancy. The hotel was built by South African construction contractor Murray & Roberts.^[12] It took three years to reclaim the land from the sea, and less than three years to construct the building itself.
• There was a considerable controversy regarding the claim that the structure looks like a huge Christian cross when viewed by anyone sailing into city. Some locals claim that this was an intentional move on the part of the British architects. This issue is more ironic when one considers that the Tower of the Arabs is widely considered to be Dubai’s most important landmark.
• It is the world's tallest structure with a membrane façade and the world's tallest hotel (not including buildings with mixed use) and was the first 5-star hotel to surpass 1000 ft (305 m) in height.
• In March 2004, the hotel received publicity when professional golfer Tiger Woods hit several golf balls from the hotel's helipad into the Persian Gulf.
• In February 2005, professional tennis players Roger Federer and Andre Agassi played an unranked game on the helipad, which was temporarily converted into a grass tennis court, at a height of 211 metres. The helipad has no borders or fences on the edges and if a player hit a winner the tennis balls would plunge down to the ground.
• Contrary to popular belief, the Burj Al Arab is not located in the area of Jumeirah (although it is connected to Jumeirah beach), but is in fact located in the community of Umm Suqeim 3.^{[citation needed]}
• Irish singer Ronan Keating shot his music video Iris at the helipad of the hotel.
• Was featured in the Tom Clancy book, Splinter Cell: Checkmate

External links

• Official website
• Tennis on the Burj's helipad
• Andre Agassi and Roger Federer play a friendly game on the roof
• Burj al-Arab - Details and photos
• Article on the Burj Al-Arab
• Burj Al-Arab on Guinness Book of World Records
• 3D Model of Burj Al-Arab for Google Earth
• Short Discussion of The Cultural Meaning of Burj al-Arab
• Google Maps - Satellite view of Burj al-Arab
• Video - Tour of a Suite at the Burj Al-Arab

-end previous information-

See also

• Burj Dubai
• Palm Islands and Palm Jumeirah
• The World (archipelago)
• Tourism in Dubai
• Jumeirah
• [Burj Dubai page]

References

• Rose, Steve. "Sand and Freedom", The Guardian, November 28, 2005, retrieved October 27, 2006.
• Architecture Magazine. Architecturemag.com: Burj al Arab, retrieved October 27, 2006.
• Talarico, Wendy. “Designing with Structural Fabrics” Architectural Record, retrieved October 27, 2006.
• National Graphic Television. National Geographic: Megastructures, retrieved October 27, 2006.
• Damluji, Salma Samar. The Architecture of the U.A.E.. Reading,UK: 2006.

Footnotes

1. ^ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A7d67A24Qo
2. ^ Architecturemag.com: Burj al Arab
3. ^ “Designing with Structural Fabrics”
4. ^ Architecturemag.com: Burj al Arab
5. ^ [National Geographic: Megastructures
6. ^ Architecturemag.com: Burj al Arab
7. ^ [The Architecture of the U.A.E..]
8. ^ [[The Architecture of the U.A.E..]
9. ^ [The Architecture of the U.A.E..]
10. ^ [The Architecture of the U.A.E..]
11. ^ [The Architecture of the U.A.E..]
12. ^ "Murray & Roberts", Murray & Roberts, 2006-06-21. Retrieved on 2006-06-21.

External links

• Photos
• Video tour
• Andre Agassi and Roger Federer

• Official website
• [http://www.nakheel.com/Developments/Map_View/ The Nakheel Group}

Coordinates: 25°08′28″N, 55°11′08″E

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