This super-skyscraper reaches nearly half a mile high into the clouds. Twice as tall as the Empire State Building, it is the tallest man-made structure standing on the Earth.

The 160-story tower boasts 53 elevators, some capable of travelling over 20mph, a super-reflective glass skin that could cover 17 football fields, and a luxurious hotel designed by Giorgio Armani. Building this $1.5 billion superstructure consumed over half a million tons of concrete, twenty acres of glass and enough steel to stretch a quarter of the way around the globe.

But the Burj Khalifa wasn’t built in a day. It stands on the shoulders of seven historic engineering achievements. We chart the stories of seven key inventions, embodied by seven landmark buildings that allow the Burj Khalifa to be so tall.

00:00 Introduction
02:28 Mobility – Equitable Life Building
10:01 Materials – Fuller / Flatiron Building
17:42 Heat – United Nations Headquarters
22:52 Speed – World Trade Center
31:43 Wind – Sears / Willis Tower
36:22 Earthquake – Taipei 101
43:43 Evacuation – Burj Dubai / Khalifa

Episode from the “Big Bigger Biggest” documentary series exploring the engineering breakthroughs that have enabled us to develop some of the largest structures in existence.

Watch part 2 of the documentary here –    • Burj Khalifa – Skyscraper Supremacy –...  

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