Architorture

Last Friday the 155th floor was completed on Burj Dubai. By
yesterday the 156th floor was finished on a building that, at 585.7m
(1,922ft) and still growing, is already the world’s tallest tower block.

By
the time that Emaar, the largest property company in Dubai, completes
the Burj (the Tower), it will rise to 164 floors, to be capped by a
spire that will add a few more precious metres. The developers are said
to be able to add on more floors if they wish at a later date to ensure
that the Burj can see off any competition that might threaten its
status as the world’s tallest building.

Such figures set pulses
racing in Dubai, a city that resembles a cross between Vancouver and
Manhattan, with a smack of the garish self-confidence that hitherto
only Las Vegas could muster. Local master planners privately refer to
developers’ love of skyscrapers as “architorture”.

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