Dubai Creek Tower is a hyper-tall tower under development in Dubai, the tower will become the World's Tallest Tower and Tallest Man-made Structure upon completion in a few years. Below are the facts about the tower, and some related information.
Name: Dubai Creek Tower (In Arabic: برج خور دبي)
The name may be a provisional name, like Burj Khalifa had been named Burj Dubai before opening.
When this tower was first unveiled in February 2016, it came with no name, the developer called it The Tower at Dubai Creek Harbor or Iconic Tower, the name The Tower at Dubai Creek Harbor was also displayed on a foundation stone at the construction site.
Since the mid 2017 they started using the new name Dubai Creek Tower, as it is planned to be the centerpiece of Dubai Creek Harbor. A giant model of the tower displayed in Dubai Mall is labeled with this new name.
Location:
Dubai Creek Tower will be built on a site in the vicinity of Dubai Creek, which is a waterfront area located near Ras Al Khor National Wildlife Sanctuary, Dubai Creek was the city's center of history and culture.
A large project named Dubai Creek Harbor is being developed there, lots of new buildings will be built, Dubai Creek Harbor is planned to be a new district in Dubai, just like Dubai Marina, Business Bay and Downtown Dubai, but this district will be three times the size of Downtown Dubai, covering an area of 6 square kilometers (2.3 square miles), Dubai Creek Tower will be the centerpiece of this project.
The site of Dubai Creek Harbor is located at 8 kilometers east of Burj Khalifa.
Height: 928 meters-1400 meters
The developer Emaar will not announce the exact height of Dubai Creek Tower until its official opening, in this way they can efficiently prevent its height from being surpassed by some potential competitive projects.
After Dubai Creek Tower was unveiled in February 2016, the son of the architect Santiago Calatrava said in an interview that the tower will be "a notch taller than Burj Khalifa", and several months later in June 2016, the Chairman of Emaar Properties told that the tower will be 100 meters taller than Burj Khalifa, which means it will be 928 meters tall, since then many news sites started to using the figure 928 to introduce the height of Dubai Creek Tower.
In August 2017, a video played in Dubai Mall gives a hint of the height of the tower, according to the video, it can be approximately speculated that 8 Dubai Creek Tower stacked on each other will reach around 11 kilometers, hence the tower will be at least 1300 meters. In the same time the video also implies that the height of 5 Dubai Creek Tower adding up is equivalent to that of 8 Burj Khalifa, this put the height of the tower to be 1345 meters.
For a tower supported by many cables anchored on anchors that spread on two sides, this height is not difficult to archive, people had built many supported towers that rise around 2000 ft in America in the last century. And 1345 meters is nowhere near the maximum height a skyscraper can be built.
If it will really be over 1300 meters tall, then it will become the tallest tower and tallest man-made structure in the world, as it can be sure that the Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia is not likely going to be that high.
The video below shows the height comparison of Dubai Creek Tower and other tallest proposed skyscrapers around the world.
However, Dubai Creek Tower will not likely to be recognized as the World's Tallest Building, because according to The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), a structure is considered a building only if at least fifty percent of its height is habitable. For Dubai Creek Tower, less than 30 percent of height will have habitable floors. This criteria of the CTBUH is controversial and is not acknowledged by everyone, the developer of Dubai Creek Tower and news outlets will still likely to refer to the tower as the tallest building in the world, as the tower has an unprecedented form that is very different from the normal sightseeing towers.
Uses: Dubai Creek Tower will be mainly used for observation decks or sky gardens. And there will be 20 floors occupied by hotels and restaurants as well, and even residences. The antenna on the peak will be used for broadcasting.
Design:
Dubai Creek Tower was designed by Spanish-Swiss architect Santiago Calatrava Valls.
Some of his best known works include the World Trade Center Transportation Hub in New York City, revamped Olympic Athletic Center of Athens in Athens. He had also designed some skyscrapers, one is Turning Torso in Malmo, an iconic spiral shaped building, another skyscraper is the renowned Chicago Spire, a cancelled tower in Chicago that was once intended to become the tallest building in America.
For Dubai Creek Tower, Santiago Calatrava claims the inspiration of his design was drawn from the natural form of lily, a kind of plant that can be found in desert areas, lily also inspired the foot print shape of Burj Khalifa.
The most distinctive feature of Dubai Creek Tower is those cable arrays, which was inspired by the ribbing of lily leaves. These sturdy cables connect the tower to the anchors that spread on the ground on two sides of the tower, making the structure more stable and safely to be built to over 1300 meters.
Apart from the cable array, the tower itself resembles a minaret, which is a sort of structure and feature prevailed in Islamic architecture, it can be seen built around numerous mosques.
The tower is mostly comprised of a slender stem, which serves as the spine of the tower, there is an elongated oval-shaped structure near the tip of the tower, evoking the bud of lily, the diameter of bud is much larger than the stem, this makes the tower look more majestic and more like a building than just a tower, and there will be many usable floors inside this bud, many of them will be used as observation decks.
Development:
As Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia was estimated to be completed before 2020, and it will be built higher than Burj Khalifa, Dubai does not want to lose the crown of World's Tallest Building, and in other hand, Dubai would hold the World EXPO in 2020, Dubai wants to surprise the visitors and show its power to the world by this opportunity, and as height can always bring the visibility, a new tallest building was proposed to be built by 2020, they wish the tower could be comparable in greatness to the Eiffel Tower in Paris and in height to the Burj Khalifa.
Apart from the tower, a large complex named Dubai Creek Harbor was planned to be built just off the Dubai Creek, the complex was approved by Sheikh Mohammed, the Ruler of Dubai on February 7, 2016.
The Creek Tower will serve as the centerpiece and heart of the complex, the centerpiece of the district was originally planned to be a pair of twin towers which would become the tallest twin towers in the world, and they were eventually replaced by the current Creek Tower.
A building that tall can drive numerous tourists and thereby makes significant positive impact on real estate valuation of the area around the tower, and eventually makes Dubai Creek Harbor a center of tourist and lifestyle.
Dubai Creek Harbor is being developed by Emaar Properties joint with Dubai Holding. The Creek Tower is solely being developed by Emaar, which is the largest real estate developer in Dubai and which also developed the Burj Khalifa.
Six proposals for the design of Dubai Creek Tower were submitted by several international architectural firms around the world.
In the late of February 2016, these designs were shown to Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai, he chose the one designed by Santiago Calatrava, and announced this final design on February 27.
In late July 2016, engineers completed seismic studies and wind tests, the tests is critical to define the final height of the tower.
The preparation works began in October 2016, around 170,000 cubic meters of soil was excavated to make space for the foundation of the tower. After that 145 piles were laid and inserted into the bottom at 75m deep, 210 thousand tonnes of concrete was poured to form the foundation. The foundation work was completed in May 2017. However, after that there has been little work above ground. The project has been on hold since the mid 2017.
Construction was initially set to be completed in 2020. Dubai Creek Tower is an observation tower that mostly comprised of the slender core structure, the progress of construction will be much faster than that of a regular skyscraper building like Jeddah Tower. Additionally, it's a supported tower, which means the construction time will be much shorter, for reference, the 629-meter KVLY TV Mast in North Dakota took only 30 days to complete, so completion in 2020 was totally possible, but only if the construction is not suspended. Now as the construction of the tower is on hold, it's unclear when it will be built, if construction resumes in 2023, then the estimated completion date would be in 2025.
In July 2019, it was reported that China State Engineering and Construction (CSCEC, a Chinese state-owned contractor, which has built numerous supertall and megatall skyscrapers in China) was actively involved in the tender process for the construction of Dubai Creek Tower, a representative of CSCEC said that they hope they could sign the contract soon and start the above-ground construction.
It is estimated the construction for the tower will cost AED 3.67 billion which equal to 1 billion US Dollars.
Tourism and sightseeing:
Dubai Creek Tower will have ten observation decks inside the oval-shape structure near the top of the tower, these observation decks offer 360-degree views of the cityscape of Dubai from a perspective of an unprecedented height.
The observation decks will be decorated like gardens, which is inspired by the ancient Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Aside from the indoor decks, there will be many smaller revolving platforms that resemble balconies built at the edge of the deck, half of such a platform is outside the façade of the tower. These rotating platforms can take visitors to an open air space to enjoy the more impressive views.
