Professional Documents
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The Construction of Burj Al Arab
The Construction of Burj Al Arab
Ehsan Pourabedin
Student No: 070271
OVERVIEW
A Conference Room
The World's Tallest Usable
Full Hotel Building. If You
Counted Mixed Use
Buildings The Jin Mao
Tower In China Would Be
The Tallest Which Is Only
Half Hotel.
In English "Burj Al Arab"
Means The Arabian Tower
Burj Al Arab Was One Of
The Most Expensive
Buildings Ever Built. It Is
One Of The World's Only
Two "7 Star" Hotels.
Burj Al Arab Is Shaped Like
A Sail.
Hotel
Restaurant
Status: built
Construction Dates:
Began: 1994
Finished: 1999
Floor Count: 60
Elevator Count: 18
Units / Rooms: 202
Heights
Height of atrium: 182m
190m
Height of top of mast from island :321m
Distance of shore to the outer point of island: 450m
Size of island: 150m per side
Sea depth: 7.5m
Length of biggest truss: 85m
Weight of biggest truss: 165t
Cantilever of sky view restaurant: 27m & 1.7m deep
Size of sky view restaurant: 1000 sq m
Weight of helicopter that can land on : 7.5 tones
Maximum sway at top of accommodation: 300mm
Total volume of concrete on the island: 33,000 sq m
Total volume of concrete in the superstructure:
36,000 sq m
Total tonnage of steel: 9200 tones
Gross area of building: 120,000 sq m
28 double height floors (7m floor to floor height)
Height of atrium: 180.5m with volume of: 285,000m3
Length of mast: 60m
Fabric area: 8700 sq m x 2
Thickness: 1mm with 50cm air gap
Tom Wills-Wright
Tom Wright is the architect and
designer of the Burj al Arab in
Dubai, UAE
Tom Wright is British, born in
Croydon a suburb of London
on 18th September 1957.
Educated at the Royal Russell
School and then Kingston
Polytechnic school of
Architecture. Wright became a
member of the Royal institute
of British Architects in 1983
and has been in practice ever
since
Tom Wills-Wright
Tom Wright lived in Dubai during
the design and construction of the
project working as the project
Design Director for Atkins one of
the worlds leading multi
discipline design consultancies.
http://www.atkinsglobal.com
structural expressionism
Structural Expressionism basically means that the
structural components of the building are visible
on the inside as well as outside. Commonly this
includes features such as exposed truss work and
complex shapes that require high level and unique
engineering Other buildings that have the same
style include: The Bank of China Tower in Hong
Kong, Erie on the Park in Chicago, and Edificio Dr.
Alfredo L. Palacios in Buenos Aires among other
buildings around the world and in planning. The
style seems to be coming more popular and can be
expected to appear in more buildings in the future.
KCA International
Led by Ms Kuan
Chew
The client asked us to
design a building that
would become a symbol
for Dubai. Sidney has it's
Opera House and New
York has the Statue of
Liberty so Dubai would
also have a building that
people would associate
with the place.
We looked at the other buildings in the world
that are symbols to see what they had in
common. We found that they were all totally
unique in shape and they all have a simple
easily recognizable form. We decided that the
test to determine if a building is symbolic is if
you can draw it in 5 seconds and every one
recognizes it.
Dubai is becoming a world
resort location so the building
had to say holiday, fun and
sophistication all things
associated with yachting.
This mixed with Dubai's
nautical heritage it seemed an
appropriate shape.
It helps its uniqueness. It looks like a sail / boat.
If it was on shore it would block the sun on the
beach in the middle of the day.
The building is built on sand, which is unusual
as most tall building are founded on rock. The
building is supported on 250 , 1.5M diameter
columns that go 45 meters under the sea. As
there is only sand to hold the building up the
columns rely on friction.
The screen that encloses the third side of the
atrium is made of 1mm thick glass fiber fabric
with a Teflon coat to stop the dirt sticking. The
screen is the largest of it's type and covers an
area of one and a half football pitch and
is hung from the top of the building by over a
kilometer of 52mm cable.
The diagonal trusses on the side of the building
are as long as a football pitch and weigh as
much as 20 double-decker busses. They were
built 15 KM from the site and brought by road
to Dubai on huge 80 wheel lorries which had
to be specially imported from South Africa. The
highest truss took a day to lift into place.
high-rise
atrium
cantilever
landing pad
pole
truss
stilts
Construction of Burj Al Arab began in
1994, and was completed in 1999 It was
built n the shape of the Arab dhow, a type
of Arabian vessel. Two wings spread in a
V shape to form a mast, with the space in
between them making the worlds largest
atrium. It needed to be a building that
would become synonymous with the
name of the country.
Principal Structural
Engineer of Building
Martin Halford
Eversendai Engineering
130 foot Deep Piles
Outer Steel Frame V
Inner Reinforced
Concrete V
Core Connection
Cross-bracing and
Curved Truss Arch
Teflon Coated
Fiberglass Fabric
As a tall building, the lateral loads of the Burj Al Arab are of most
importance. Due to the geographic location in the Persian Gulf,
winds and seismic activity had to be considered. The building was
built to withstand a fifty year wind of 100 miles per hour and a
seismic ground acceleration of 0.2 times gravity (Reina).
Al Habtoor Engineering
Fletcher Construction
The companies all joined to gather because by utilizing the separate talents
of each partner; the bulk of the risk could be redistributed to the firms that
were best equipped to handle each particular issue. The risks that needed to
be considered were :
1. labor supply
2. concrete work
3. structural steel supply
4. Erection
5. high rise management experience
6. Purchasing
7. cost control
8. management staffing
1- Al Habtoor Engineering had the responsibility to
provide the project with the labor required the quality
of the concrete and block work. The procurement
system put in place by the joint venture was based on
Al Habtoor Engineering's proven system.
2- Murray and Roberts brought the expertise for
detailing, fabrication, shipment and erection of the
complex structural steel. This was subcontracted to
Genrec Steel Fabricators of Johannesburg, South
Africa, a company owned by Murray and Roberts.
This subcontract would reduce financial risk.
3- Fletcher had the high-rise management and
planning expertise. The project director and project
manager came from Fletcher and were based in Dubai.
Construction in two
phase
Phase 1
Value Engineering
and
Constructability
Phase 2
Actual Construction
The first phase would address the complexity of the
building construction and take advantage of a three-month
lead. This allowed time for construction scheduling,
purchasing of forming systems, planning for crane and
hoisting, and initial programming. The project used this
time for value engineering and development of innovative
methods for accomplishing the unique tasks. Some of the
major challenges in this phase were related to the
exoskeleton embodiments, which were redesigned in order
to ease the installation and speed up the cycle times to
adhere to the tight schedule. In addition to the exoskeleton,
Genrec was faced with redesigned some of the structure just
to facilitate constructability. The rear-braced frame was
completely redesigned from lattice girder construction to
box girders. This was not only a saving in money but also
made the building much easier to build (Al Habtoor).
For phase 2 the client had the option to award
it to another contractor should the results of the
first phase prove to be unsatisfactory. The
client decided to stick with the same firms since
there methods were already proving to speed
up and cheapen construction. Phase 2 was all
of the actual construction of the structure. The
partners used many new technologies to speed
up construction and lower the construction cost
so the companies could earn more profit by
saving money in such places as labor and
equipment (Al Habtoor).
One new technology that was used was Cantilevers Top
Climbing Jump Form system for the main core area.
Cantilever Pty Ltd, Queensland, Australia designed and
furnished the 300 ton forming system. A top climbing jump
form system requires the form to hang off a structural steel
grid and to be jumped utilizing a dozen synchronous
electric - operated screw jacks that lift the entire system by
pushing off the top of the walls previously poured. The
form system chosen for the wing walls and the stair cores
was Doka's SKE automatic-climbing form system. The wing
areas of the building house the two-storey suites. Each of the
six walls per wing are 13 meters long and were poured in
3.57 meter lifts. Doka designed the forms such that only two
climbing brackets per form were necessary. The fewer
suspension points meant fewer man hours were required for
each operation therefore saving time and money.
Another place where technology was used was in the form
system for the main floors. This form system was also
designed, manufactured and furnished by Cantilever Pty
Ltd. This form was designed as a flying cable and was
supported by brackets attached to the walls. The form itself
weighed 18 tons. The frame for each form was constructed
with large castellated steel beams and measured 18.3 meters
long by 8.1 meters wide. Once the slab was cast and reached
sufficient strength, the forms were jacked down off the wall
brackets and flown into the next position with tower cranes.
The table forms saved time by eliminating the need for
shoring labor to hold them up. In addition, Meinhardt
International helped the joint venture re-engineer the slabs
to a post-tensioned design, reducing the labor on reinforcing
steel and time required to get sufficient strength to strip the
form (Doka).
The forming a joint venture
the companies undoubtedly
contributed the most to the
success of the project. The
companies use of value
engineering, constructability,
and preplanning and
planning that included all
members of the group helped
to keep cost down as well as
keep up with the schedule
that was set by the owner.
Majority of Mechanical, Electrical and
Plumbing Designs by DSE Engineering
Group
All designs are very involved given the
nature the project
Exterior Electrical Designs
Subcontracted out to
Speirs and Major Associates
As you might expect the mechanical, electrical and
plumbing designs for this building are quite
involved given the buildings size and architecture.
Each facet of the MEP has its own individual
design challenges. One can imagine the difficulty
associated with cooling a building in a city with an
average temperature of 80 Fahrenheit in the
winter, especially when the greater part of the
buildings outside is covered in glass. The
complexity is only multiplied when you consider
that the building is a hotel and that each of the 202
suites are outfitted with their own electricity and
plumbing feeds.
The structure is made of a steel exoskeleton
wrapped around an reinforced concrete tower.
The space between the wings is enclosed by a
Teflon-coated fiberglass sail, curving across
the front of the building and 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. The
fabricators estimate that it will hold up for up
to 50 years.
At 14,000 channels it is the largest architectural
lighting control system ever made (Futronix). Each
suite has one or more PFX-32 dimming control
systems, which operate the lighting in every room.
The largest suites have five systems giving a total of
160 channels of lighting. As if the interior lighting
schemes were not enough, each suite is also
equipped with digital surround sound, multimedia
enhanced 42 plasma television, internet access,
touch-screen video and teleconferencing, fax
machine, photocopier, data port and to top it all off,
automated curtains (Burj Al Arab).
The Burj Al
Arab is lit
by 150
color
changing.
highlighted
by 90 Data
Flash
strobes