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Burj Khalifa Tallest Building At 828 Meters
The Burj Khalifa just opened yesterday; at 828 meters, it is the world's tallest building. And by "tallest" I mean that it ranks as the tallest by all three criteria posed by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). The Burj Khalifa is the tallest based on ‘Height to Architectural Top,’ ‘Height to Highest Occupied Floor’ and ‘Height to Tip.’
Burj Khalifa achieved the distinction of being the world's tallest structure – surpassing the KVLY-TV mast (628.8 metres; 2,063 ft) in North Dakota, USA – 1,325 days after excavation work started in January 2004. The tower also beats the 31-year-old record of CN Tower, which at 553.33 metres (1,815.5 ft) had been the world’s tallest free-standing structure on land since 1976.
Burj Khalifa employs a record-breaking 330,000 cubic metres of concrete, 39,000 metric tonnes of steel rebar and 142,000 square metres of glass; and it took 22 million man hours to build. Other world records for Burj Khalifa include the highest occupied floor in the world, at over 550 metres (1,800 ft); the highest outdoor observation deck in the world – At the Top on Level 124; and the tallest service elevator, which travels to a height of 504 metres (1,654 ft).
This dramatic video, taken months before completion from the pool area of the nearby Address Hotel, makes the Burj Khalifa look like some sort of special effect.
At 828 metres (2,716.5ft), Burj Khalifa is 320 metres taller than Taipei 101, which at 508 metres (1,667 ft) had held the record for the world’s tallest building measured to the architectural top since 2004, the year the project was announced.
(Burj Khalifa video)
Science fiction has its share of tall (and large) structures. The nanotech buildings of William Gibson's 1996 novel Idoru made use of sophisticated materials to reach remarkable heights. In Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune, the temporary home of the Padishah Emperor spanned a thousand meters by using fanmetal. And for sheer size, what single building could compare with Trantor, the planet that served as the Capital in Isaac Asimov's 1951 Foundation series. The entire planet was covered with domes and buildings (except for the Imperial gardens).
In his 1970 novel Tower of Glass, author Robert Silverberg writes about a soaring tower needed to communicate with the stars.
Read more about science-fictional living space below; see also this building Burj al-Taqa Dubai Energy Tower.
SF in the News Related To Living Space
From Al Bawaba.
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Related News Stories - (" Living Space ")
Amazon Will Send You Heinlein's Knockdown Cabin
'It's so light that you can set it up in five minutes by yourself...' - Robert Heinlein, 1940.
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'There was nowhere on the planet where science and technology could not provide one with a comfortable home...' - Arthur C. Clarke.
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'Its slack walls tightened, bulged, were crossed by ripples and waves of movement.' - Fritz Leiber, 1943.
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Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
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