Burj Dubai Is Opened Watch the Cermoney Movie

Posted on 04. Jan, 2010 by admin in Entertainment

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It is the emirate which has everything: from islands shaped like a map of the world to a ski slope in the middle of the desert.

But last year Dubai’s glittering boom came crashing around its ears as it too fell victim to the global financial crisis, some £70bn in debt.

Now it is hoping for a new start as the world’s tallest building is officially opened today.

Constructed by some 12,000 workers, the Burj Dubai is thought to have cost around £1bn.

Designed by the Chicago based Skidnmore, Owings and Merrill and towering more than eight hundred metres into the sky, on a clear day you can see all the way to Iran.

The developers are upbeat, claiming its 1,100 luxury residential units, designed by Georgio Armani, are 90 per cent sold. There will be a shopping mall, offices, and the world’s tallest fountains gushing into a man-made lake. And it also boasts the world’s highest mosque, atop the 158th floor.

Prices, though, are less than half the £2,000 a square foot the tower once commanded at its peak.

The developers – the Government-owned Emaar Properties – claim the super-scraper is a marvel of engineering which, as the Washington Post puts it: “represents the pinnacle of Dubai’s evolution from fishing village to metropolis”.

But critics are far more damning of this ultimate symbol of conspicuous consumption. Human rights groups have complained about the treatment of the construction labourers and environmental activists are warning about its potential carbon footprint.

But whatever the ethical merits, Dubai is hoping the Burj will provide the necessary revival for its struggling economy. The emirate’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is presiding over an entire day of celebrations and festivities, coinciding with his own fourth anniversary in power.

The tower took some 22 million man hours to complete and it is been built to withstand extreme weather, including high winds. But whether it has got the staying power to ride out the financial crisis remains to be seen.

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