Standing Tall

Dr Saidi, chief economist at Dubai International Financial Centre, explains why the Burj Khalifa is much more than the world’s tallest building – it’s an economic driver and the pinnacle of a mega-district.

With the limelight fading on the inauguration of Burj Khalifa it is time to see through the hype and focus on the impact that this architectural marvel will have on Dubai and the UAE.

Since the dawn of civilisation, for about four millennia, the tallest buildings on Earth were located in the Middle East. The Pyramids of Giza remained unsurpassed until the construction of cathedrals towards the end of the Middle Ages in Europe. Height in human psyche has always been linked with power and achievement, so the quest for the tallest edifice spans history.

In modern times the claim for the world’s first skyscraper, is fiercely disputed, but the first building with a structural steel skeleton was Chicago’s 13-storey Tacoma Building, erected in 1892. A little earlier, in 1887, the Tower Building in New York sparked the race for height in the Big Apple that would culminate with the Empire State Building in 1931, surpassed only much later, in 1973 by the Twin Towers. They were topped after one year by the Sears Tower in Chicago. Twenty years later, new records were set in Asia, Kuala Lumpur’s PETRONAS Towers first and then Taipei 101.

With the opening of Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made structure on the planet is once again located in the Middle East, in a country with less history than Egypt, but certainly embracing the future in a dynamic style well symbolised by Burj Khalifa’s imposing, yet sleek, silhouette.

What is the significance of such an achievement? Is it an expensive pursuit of notoriety, devoid of economic logic or is it a bold investment capable of giving a boost to the UAE economy in a delicate passage of its history?

To answer these questions we might start by pointing out that Burj Khalifa is not merely a skyscraper; it is a vertical city surrounded by an integrated network of other purpose-built structures such as the Dubai Mall, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) district and Business Bay. Taken together, these mega structures, connected by a state-of-the-art urban mass transit system (the Dubai Metro) and a network of highways, will form an integrated agglomeration which will redefine the conventional notion of urbanisation. The sheer size of Burj Khalifa makes possible the concentration of businesses and social activities within a relatively limited space at an unprecedented scale. This process of agglomeration within mega buildings spurs a host of positive externalities associated with the faster and smoother interaction of many individuals with specialised competencies.

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