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828m

828m

(OP)
ENR - Burj Khalifa

The Burj Khalifa - tallest building in the world.

Now...the question isn't so much as "how high" can we / should we build these things.

What I wonder is how efforts to design and construct such tall monsters compare with efforts to land a man on the moon, cure cancer, etc.  Are we going where no man has gone before?  Do efforts such as this advance the human race in any meaningful way?  I'm not questioning anyone's right to build tall buildings, just wondering about the why and what it really accomplishes.

  

RE: 828m

I don't know what the point is. If you flush a toilet on the 160th floor, you have to pump water half a mile high. Are these buildings really worth it? Apparently the building has less square foot area than the Willis (Sears) Tower. It just seems like a building built just to prove a point.

RE: 828m

You know the ark theory, humans are in a hurry to learn to build an ark to be able to abandon earth prior to becoming unhabitable. In that senses, learn to build big things is good training. Otherwise you live another version of the ark, where everything is preserved as seed.

RE: 828m

The location is not that far removed from the Bibilical Tower of Babel.  

Same attitude here as climbing a mountain because it is there.  It was built because it could be.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto:  KISS
Motivation:  Don't ask

RE: 828m

nothing like having a tall tower (or better yet, the tallest tower) to get bragging rights at the pub (or other places of recreation) ...

RE: 828m

I imagine someone was blogging the same question when they were building the Pyramids, the Collosus of Rhodes, the Ivory Zeus, etc........  

RE: 828m

It makes sense to build in the vertical direction. It certainly is a challenging project for all kind of industries. Perhaps the challenge will somehow encourage innovation/development within those industries.
 However it is not that creative since it seems that it is more of a competition for the tallest structure.

We should be able to build up and defy gravity(!) However I am not sure if it is that practical to build super tall structures, why not build a complex of towers instead of one... Hope it "stands-up" to their expectations. :)  

RE: 828m

If you look at other tall buildings, they weren't built so much in the "developed" countries as in the "up-and-coming" countries.  Buildings like that aren't necessarily the most profitable or practical, and it's very much a point-proving thing.

RE: 828m

I agree with JStephen , it says "Look at us, we are a young and dynamic centre for the  growing of ideas and architecture, a place for growth."

Michael.
Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

RE: 828m

Agreed, no country is overcrowded enough to truly justify an 800m building.

RE: 828m

Be the #1 always means something to humankind, but not always justified.

RE: 828m

Will this still count as a BASE parachute jump or is it too high??

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