LEGO Architecture Burj Khalifa Building Instructions

Burj Khalifa

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

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BurjKhalifa

Described as both a ‘Vertical City’ and ‘A Living Wonder,’ Burj
Khalifa, at the heart of downtown Dubai, is also the world’s
tallest building.
Developed by Dubai-based Emaar Properties PJSC,
Burj Khalifa rises gracefully from the desert and honors
the city with its extraordinary union of art, engineering and
meticulous craftsmanship.
At 828 meters (2,716.5 feet), the equivalent of a 200
story building, Burj Khalifa has 160 habitable levels, the most
of any building in the world. The tower was inaugurated on
January 4, 2010, to coincide with the fourth anniversary of
the Accession Day of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin
Rashid Al Maktoum Vice President and Prime Minister of
the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
Arguably the world’s most interesting construction
project, Burj Khalifa is responsible for a number of world-firsts.
The tower became the world’s tallest man-made structure
just 1,325 days after excavation work started in January 2004.
Burj Khalifa utilized a record-breaking 330,000 cubic
meters (430,000 cubic yards) of concrete;

© Emaar Propertie s PJSC

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39,000 tons of steel reinforcement; 103,000 square meters
(1.1 million square feet) of glass; and 15,500 square meters
(167,000 square feet) of embossed stainless steel. The tower
took 22 million man-hours to build.
With a total built-up area of 526,000 square
meters (5.67 million square feet), Burj Khalifa features
170,000 square meters (1.85 million square feet)
of residential space, over 28,000 square meters

(300,000 square feet) of office space, with remaining area
occupied by a luxury hotel.
In 2003, as a result of an international design competition,
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) was selected from
a group of five international competitors to carry out the
architecture and engineering of the Burj Khalifa.
With famous architecture in the Haj Terminal at Jeddah
Airport and National Commercial Bank, SOM is no stranger
to Middle Eastern design. SOM incorporated patterns and

©EmaarProper tiesPJSC ©EmaarProper tiesPJSC

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elements from traditional Islamic architecture, but
the most inspiring muse was a regional desert flower, the
Hymenocallis, whose harmonious structure is one of the
organizing principles of the tower’s design. Three ‘petals’
are arranged in a triangular shape and unified at the center,
and instead of repeated identical patterns, the architectural
plan appoints successively receding and rotated stories.

The Y-shaped plan is ideal for residential and hotel usage,
with the wings allowing maximum outward views and inward
natural light. Viewed from above or from the base, the tips
of the Y-shaped plan evokes the onion domes of Islamic
architecture. During the design process, engineers rotated
the building 120 degrees from its original layout to reduce
stress from prevailing winds.

©EmaarProper tiesPJSC ©EmaarProper tiesPJSC ©EmaarProper tiesPJSC

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Architecturally, the building transforms itself from a solid
base expression to a vertically expressed middle section of
polished stainless steel projected metal fins and glass. Only
vertical elements were used here, as the fine dust in Dubai’s
air would build up on any horizontal projecting elements.

©EmaarProper tiesPJSC ©Ema arPropertie sPJSC

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To support the unprecedented height of the building,
the engineers developed a new structural system called
the buttressed core, which consists of a hexagonal core
reinforced by three buttresses that form the ‘Y’ shape. Each
wing, with its own high performance concrete corridor walls
and perimeter columns, buttresses the other wings through
a connection to the six-sided central core, or hexagonal
hub. The result is a tower that is exteremly stiff laterally and
torsionally.
Each tier of the building sets back in a spiral stepping
pattern up the building. The setbacks are organized
with the tower’s grid, such that the building stepping is
accomplished by aligning columns above with walls below
to provide a smooth load path. This allows the construction
to proceed without the normal difficulties associated with
column transfers.
The setbacks are organized such that the tower’s width
changes at each setback. The advantage of the stepping
and shaping is to ‘confuse the wind’. The wind vortices are
never allowed to build up because at each new tier the wind

Thestructuralsystem

© Emaar Properties PJSC Rebar construction © Emaar Properties PJSC

Burj Khalifa structural plan.pdf – © SOM

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encounters a different building shape.
This structural system enables the building to support itself
laterally and keeps it from twisting.
At the top, the central core emerges and transitions to
a special steel framed structure which is sculpted to form a
finished spire. The spire of Burj Khalifa is composed of more
than 4,000 tons of structural steel.
The building utilizes high-speed, non-stop shuttle
elevators to sky lobby floors where passengers transfer to
local elevators serving the floors in between.

Burj Khalifa has 57 elevators
and 8 escalators. Travelling
at 10 meters/sec (33 feet/
sec) per second, they have
the world’s longest travel
distance from lowest to
highest stop. The building
service/fireman’s elevator
will have a capacity of 5,500
kilograms (12,000 pounds)
and is the world’s tallest
service elevator.
To achieve the greatest
efficiencies, the mechanical,
electrical and plumbing
services for Burj Khalifa
were developed all together
during the design phase of
the tower in cooperation with
the architect, structural

Burj Khalifa wind.jpg – © SOM Inside the high-speed elevator

© Emaar Properties PJSC

© Emaar Properties PJSC

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engineers and other consultants. The tower’s water
system supplies an average of 946,000 liters (250,000
gallons) of water daily. At peak cooling, Burj Khalifa will
require about 10,000 tons of cooling, equal to the cooling
capacity provided by about 10,000 tons of melting ice. Dubai’s
hot, humid climate combined with the building’s cooling
requirements creates a significant amount of condensation.
This water is collected and drained in a separate piping system
to a holding tank in the basement car park. The condensate
collection system provides about 57 million liters (15 million
gallons) of supplement water per year, equal to about 20
Olympic-sized swimming pools. The tower’s peak electrical
demand is 50 MVA, equivalent to roughly 500,000 100-watt
light bulbs all operating at the same time.

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FactsaboutBurjKhalifa

Location: .......................... Downtown Dubai,

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Architect:.......................... Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

LLP (SOM)

Building type: ............... Supertall skyscraper

Materials: ......................... Reflective glazing, aluminum

and textured stainless steel

Construction: ................ Reinforced concrete and steel

Date: ................................... From 2004 to 2010

Floor area: ....................... 464,511 m

2

(5.67 million square feet)

Height: ............................... 828 meters (2,716.5 ft.)

Stories: .............................. 160+ stories

©EmaarProper tiesPJSC

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With the design and engineering of Burj Khalifa, Skidmore,
Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), joined forces with Dubai based
developers, Emaar Properties PJSC, to redefine what was
possible with supertall buildings.
With a portfolio that includes some of the most
important architectural accomplishments of the 20th and
21st centuries, including the John Hancock Center and Willis
(formerly Sears) Tower, SOM was perfectly placed to carry
out this challenging task.
To create Burj Khalifa — a building that shatters all
previous height records at 828 meters (2,716.5 feet) — a team of
more than 90 designers and engineers combined cutting edge
technology and culturally-influenced design to create a
global icon that will serve as a model for future urban centers.

Thearchitects

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The interior is inspired by local
culture while staying mindful of the
building’s status as a global icon and
residence. The design features glass,
stainless steel and polished dark
stones, together with silver travertine
fl ooring, Venetian stucco walls,
handmade rugs and stone fl ooring.

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Over 26,000 glass panels were
used in the exterior cladding of
Burj Khalifa. Over 300 cladding
specialists from China were
brought in for the cladding work
on the tower.

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The opening ceremony of Burj Khalifa
featured a display of 10,000 fi reworks, light
beams and fur ther sound, light and water
eff ects. Using 868 powerful stroboscope
lights that are integrated into the façade
and spire, diff erent lighting sequences were
choreographed, together with more than 50
diff erent combinations of the other eff ects.

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It will take 36 workers three
to four months to clean the
entire exterior façade using all
building maintenance units.

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Burj Khalifa is truly the product of international
collaboration; over 60 consulants including 30 on-site
contracting companies from around the world were
involved in the project.

At the peak of construction, over 12,000 professionals and
skilled workers from more than 100 countries were on site
every day. The world’s fastest high-capacity construction
hoists, with a speed of up to 2 meters/sec (6.5 feet/sec)
(120 meters/min), were used to move men and materials.

Over 45,000 cubic meters (1.59 million cubic feet) of
concrete, weighing more than 110,000 tons, were used
to construct the concrete and steel foundations, which
feature 192 piles, buried more than 50 meters (164 feet)
deep. Burj Khalifa employs a record-breaking 330,000
cubic meters (11.6 million cubic feet) of concrete; 39,000
m/t of reinforced steel; 103,000 square meters (1.1 million
square feet) of glass; 15,500 square meters. (166,800 square
feet) of embossed stainless steel; and the tower took
22 million man-hours to build.

The amount of reinforced steel used at the tower, would if
laid end to end extend over a quarter of the way around
the world. The concrete used is equivalent to a sidewalk
1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) in length, and the weight
of 110,000 elephants. The weight of the empty building
is 500,000 tons.

The tower accomplished a world record for the highest
installation of an aluminum and glass facade, at a height
of 512 meters (1,679.8 feet). The total weight of aluminum
used on Burj Khalifa is equivalent to that of five A380
aircraft, and the total length of stainless steel ‘bull nose’
fins is 293 times the height of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

ConstructionHighlights

©EmaarProper tiesPJSC

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As an Architectural Artist my desire is to capture the essence
of a particular architectural landmark into its pure sculptural
form. I fi rst and foremost do not view my models as literal
replicas, but rather my own artistic interpretations through
the use of LEGO

®

bricks as a medium. The LEGO brick is
not initially thought of as a material typically used in creating
art or used as an artist’s medium. I quickly discovered the
LEGO brick was lending itself as naturally to my applications
as paint to a painter or metal to a blacksmith. As I explore
how to capture these buildings with the basic shapes of the
bricks and plates, I fi nd the possibilities and challenges they
off er almost magical.

Burj Khalifa
This model has two unique details surrounding its launch. It
is the fi rst International model to be showcased in the LEGO
Architecture line and it is also the latest skyscraper since the
Seattle Space Needle in continuing the Landmark theme. In
terms or design challenges this model really only had a few.
As impressive as the real structure is, when captured in its

smaller LEGO form the only discernable form is its 3-spoke
geometry. Y-shapes & triangular shapes can be tricky to
construct using square bricks. However, in this case the use
of a single Technic 3-bladed rotor propeller establishes the
basis of the entire model. From there I was able to have 9
points and 1 in the central core totaling 10 nodes from which
to build upward vertically, while expanding the propeller to
add 2 downward vertical points from each blade totaling an
additional 6 nodes. So, that single propeller piece anchors all
16 radial nodes and thus capturing the essence of the entire
design.

– Adam Reed Tucker

A Word from the Artist

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“Architecture — a wonderful game”

This was the title, or rather a paraphrase of the French
title (‘L’architecture est un jeu … magnifique’) of a 1985
exhibition hosted by the Pompidou Centre in Paris,
where 30 young European architects were given the
opportunity to play with the famous Danish LEGO

®

bricks. The original idea was actually Dutch, Rotterdam’s
Kunststichting arranging a small event the previous year
where ten local architects were let loose on a large
number of LEGO bricks. Such was the success of this first
initiative that the Pompidou Centre decided to expand
the idea to include 30 young aspiring architects from
across Europe—their goal: to each draw an imaginary
villa which would then, brick by brick, be built at LEGO
HQ in Billund.
During the event, many a quotation was used
from the history of architecture. For example, the Italian
Renaissance architect Palladio was quoted alongside
modernists such as Mies van der Rohe and Gerit Rietveld,
the quotes relating to architectural projects from oil
platforms to romantic ruins. It was a case of ‘no holds

barred’ and even though some of the projects produced
by the 30 talents ended in weird and wonderful pseudo­philosophical comments on opportunities, or rather the
lack of same in the Eighties, it was all, nevertheless, a
wonderful game.

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References

Textcredits
EmaarPropertiesPJSC
SkidmoreOwings&MerrillLLP

Photocredits
EmaarPropertiesPJSC
SkidmoreOwings&MerrillLLP

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Customer Service

Kundenservice

Service Consommateurs

Servicio Al Consumidor

www.lego.com/service or dial

:

00800 5346 5555

:

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