Middle East to build more skyscrapers

19 February 2014

Kingdom Tower in Jeddah set to be tallest building in the world

The news this week that a local contractor has begun mobilising to build a 106-storey residential building in Dubai will help ensure the Middle East remains a prime location for super-tall towers.

The region currently has 10 of the top 30 tallest completed towers in the world, with more set to join the ranks of the world’s highest buildings, according to data from the Skyscraper Center.

First on the list is the 828-metre-high Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which became the world’s tallest building when it was completed in 2010. The second-tallest building in the world – the 608-metre-tall Mecca Royal Clock Tower – is also in the Middle East.

The next tallest buildings in the region are Dubai’s Princess Tower and Kuwait’s Al-Hamra Tower, both of which are 413 metres high. Other buildings in the Middle East that are among the 30 tallest in the world are 23 Marina, Elite Residences, Almas Tower, JW Marriott Hotel and Emirates Tower, all of which are in Dubai.

Regional contractors were employed to build many of these towers, including Dubai-based Arabtec Construction, which built Burj Khalifa, and Saudi Binladin Group (SBG), which constructed the Mecca Royal Clock Tower.

There are two other 100-storey-plus towers at the design stage in Dubai. The tallest is the 660-metre-tall, 115-storey Burj 2020. The project client, Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), expects construction work on the project to start in 2015. The tower has been designed to be the world’s tallest commercial tower. The other planned tower is the 520-metre-tall, 110-storey Entisar tower.

By far, the tallest building under construction in the region is Kingdom Tower, which is being built by SBG in Jeddah. The tower is designed to be more than 1,000 metres tall, encompassing a total construction area of 530,000 square metres.

The building will have 200 floors in total, 160 of which will be habitable. Its preliminary cost is set at $1.23bn and it is set to overshadow Burj Khalifa by at least 173 metres.

This week, SBG said it has appointed Lebanon’s Advanced Construction Technology Services (ACTS) to carry out quality control checks on the construction materials to be used on the project. ACTS said it will be mobilising the latest equipment to conduct the third-party testing works on about half a million cubic metres of concrete and 80,000 tonnes of steel that will be used on the megaproject.

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