Lego Architecture 21031 Burj Khalifa (Бурдж-Халифа) [4/116] National commercial bank som is no stranger to middle eastern

Burj Khalifa utilized a record-breaking 430,000 cubic yds. (330,000 m

)

of concrete; 42,990 tons (39,000 metric tons) of steel reinforcement;

1.1 million sq. ft. (103,000 m

) of glass; and 167,000 sq. ft. (15,500 m

) of

embossed stainless steel. The tower took 22 million man-hours to build.

With a total built-up area of 5.67 million sq. ft. (526,000 m

), Burj Khalifa

features 1.85 million sq. ft. (170,000 m

) of residential space, over 300,000

sq. ft. (28,000 m

) of oﬃce space, with the 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 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