The high level of dust in the atmosphere in Middle East locations puts greater importance on exterior cleaning and maintenance systems than in other parts of the world, where less sand and higher rainfall reduce the amount of cleaning required. On the glass and steel Burj Dubai, the challenge is more extreme than anywhere else in the world and inevitably the designers have had to come up with an innovative solution. Bespoke cleaning platforms have been designed to be installed in the building plant rooms on the 40th, 75th and 109th floors of the building.

“We have major cleaning elements hidden on the plant room levels,” says Hyder’s Pickering. “The equipment comes out through eight-metre-high motorised hangar doors and then locks on to a tubular rails that curve around the building.”