World's Tallest Tower: Burj Khalifa - Dubai's Vertical City | Free Documentary

[Music] this is the story of the tallest tower mankind has ever built it is the story of the engineers and workers who built it half a mile high it is the story of the men and women who live and work inside this building a story told deep behind the scenes is it just an evacuation drill no 92 is not amazing make it hundred please tonight there are no mistakes this is money full of excitement no i said not to bring everything because i don't have storage faith my friend we have people here fast fast and a story rich with glamour and emotions we're very very happy people opening a restaurant is like falling in love this is the exclusive story of the burj khalifa the highest building on earth the world's first true vertical city the city of dubai in the united arab emirates for centuries it has been a small trading port and pearl fishing town on the shores of the arabian gulf but during the last few decades the wealth generated by the region's oil reserves and the determination of its leaders to make dubai an important city has created a magnificent boom in 2003 close to 200 skyscrapers are finished or under construction now the ruler of dubai his highness sheikh mohammed bin rashid al maktoum gives a very simple order build the highest tower in the world as with any other construction project work on the highest building in history starts with digging a hole a very big hole it's only a few months since dubai-based developer emar appointed the chicago firm som their project architect eric tomic is on site from day one it's a little bit counter-intuitive but the building does not have foundations that go down to rock there isn't a lot of rock here in the desert like you would find in new york city or various other geological climates we use what are called friction piles and the friction piles are drilled down into the sand and soft rock which is down there and these friction piles develop their load bearing capacity based on their dimension and the length and they're about 45 meters deep and generally about one and a half meters in diameter and there are about 200 of these piles that are drilled down into the desert soil the desert flower hymenocollis inspired the shape of the tower's foundation the shape makes it easier to build hundreds of meters into the sky and so while they're already building the team under the lead architect george evsta theo and their client make a bold decision at that time the brief for the tower was to design a tower that's 550 meters which would have been just slightly taller than the world record holder at that time which is taipei 101. we learned as we got into the project that we could go higher and and after talking to the client we there was a desire to go higher and not only break the record by a little bit but to really break it by a big margin once the foundation is laid the tower grows at maximum speed the site is humming 24 hours a day seven days a week we had about uh 100 people of architects engineers designers and so on but we had 12 000 people on site every day there is a new floor every three days but the higher you go the more problems you face the biggest is the desert wind you can't build a a uniform tower of uniform dimension all the way to the top because this creates some very bad wind wind effects on the structure when the terraces work up in a certain pattern and create a helical trace of the building and the building is not symmetrical then the wind has much less effect on moving the building about when the building goes up it's an asymmetrical structure and it creeps and shrinks a little bit asymmetrically when building the world's tallest structure every centimeter counts when they cast the concrete we needed to know where the center of the building was and if it's always moving it can be quite challenging so the contractors set up three different gps stations on the ground and a gps station at the very top of the building where the concrete was being cast every day and through triangulation they could actually measure through gps what the nearest approximation of the center of the building was and finding that they could plumb and center all the parts of the formwork and cast the concrete in the right place every day the panels of the exterior wall are a major design challenge the glass has to reflect the heat but let the light in and they have to be absolutely water sand and windproof the workers are pulling the panel from level 16 where we store the panel and take it up by the hoist we have around 200 panels in each floor we expect to be finished from level 19 20 21 within two weeks time in july 2007 the burj khalifa breaks the world record at 512 meters it is now the highest structure on the planet but this is not enough well we're at now at level 156 um which is the start where we start seeing steel work coming above concrete there is some steel work already cast into the concrete to give us the st the foundations for what is essentially a small eiffel tower the steel work is not fabricated at ground level and lifted up we lift it up here and then do all the lifting into position and bolting in only a few weeks the tower will be finished but there is one final task and it's not easy the erection of this fire which was one of the trickiest things in the building to build and one of the last things was quite interesting in itself it's a 300 foot pipe basically and how do you get a 300 foot pipe pipe up on top of a building like this the solution cut the pipe in 25 pieces and lift them up one by one the building has reached its final height 800 828 meters it's a pretty nice moment to see this happen so we've been waiting quite a long time to see this occur we did it it is a proud day for dubai and for the region when sheikh mohammed bin rashid al maktoum inaugurates the burj khalifa on january 4th 2010. it was like so such an emotional moment for me just to to think about the journey that we had just taken and realizing what we had just done it was such a an intense uh seven or eight years that we worked together that when the building was unveiled and the the spectacle that was here made me cry [Music] the burj khalifa at seven o'clock in the morning the vertical city comes alive among the first tenants to move in are the canton ants from new york [Music] twenties okay okay their apartment is not yet finished but they have already developed a daily routine workout in the sky lobby on level 76. generally the workout will take about an hour for him mine is 35 40 minutes i'm done um i cannot do that much exercise because i have a long day ahead i need to get you know to be functional otherwise i get too tired and then i can kill somebody i get very cranky and it doesn't work mrs cantonette who does not reveal her first name has made a career as an interior designer dubai cannot be compared to any of the places i've ever been to it's very unique it's very modern the infrastructure is superb to anything we've seen because you can work very hard and you come here to work hard but you also have the quality of life that is exceptional great weather true and the summary may get a little bit warm but the truth of it is that you don't really feel it because the city is designed with everything air conditioned so what is it going from your car perhaps which to the to the from the whatever place you're in into a car which also has air conditioning you just live a little longer inside indoors but we love it wow look at this what a beautiful day hi guys you're really enjoying it huh yeah let's go let's go out let's go should the winds on the terrace be too strong the wind tracker would automatically lock the doors the other thing that is amazing as well and we've seen this you see the fog rolling in yeah so you're literally inside a cloud literally and then you know one side could be perfectly clear and then you see the fog rolling in and everything with your spirits it could come from that side or you could come from this side yes and look that's the palm jumeirah you can see the bird alarm clearly yes you know this is what what more could you ask for i mean you have it all you have here the views you have the arabian wall this is marvelous thank you god thank you try my quiche but these are supposed to be the fastest elevators in the world it's 10 meters per second 57 elevators are the highways of the vertical city in charge john gossen this is a very unique building building relies heavily on the elevators to be able to uh to travel we can visibly see the activity of each elevator its location and you could also can control some of the security components on there now there's a demand on the fifth floor so this elevator is going to be responding to the fifth floor and you'll see the doors opening there are six elevators here they're broken into two groups the first three will take you to the 43rd floor sky lobby up there you will have a reception and from the reception you transfer to the local elevators that get you to your apartments from 43 all the way to 72. these three elevators go to the 76th floor sky lobby and likewise it has a lobby with a reception and allows you to transfer to your residences the burj khalifa has three wings each with an independent entrance one is called the residences and consists of 900 apartments 196 symbols in the lobby represent the many nationalities within the city apartments run from level 43 all the way up to 108. the concierge service is available for residents 24 hours a day the second wing hosts the corporate suites with offices on floors 111 to 154 the third wing is the entrance to the world's first armani hotel designed by giorgio armani himself the luxurious five-star hotel has rooms suites and restaurants running from the ground floor to level 39 and also includes the armani residences the sky lobbies with gyms swimming pools and jacuzzis lie on floors 43 and 76 sky lobby 123 houses lounges for the residences and the corporate suites good morning are you looking for me perfect timing the cantonese objective is to turn their home into a living art gallery the workers have just arrived to modify the apartment you're on the 92nd floor of the burj khalifa the view that we have is something that we need to accentuate in our design process the columns are also elements that are a result of the external design of the building and originally when i first saw them i was like oh my god this is going to be a little bit difficult and then i thought they do serve a purpose and that is you feel you're in a safe place regardless of the fact that you know it's unfortunate to have them but um i was in new york for 911 and i know the difference between that construction and this construction that was mainly steel so they thought about all these elements when they were building it and they came up with these massive columns but they do serve a purpose and i'm glad for that in our design concept we're going to be trying the objective will be to bring the external light into the apartment first we're going to use color and is the blue of the sky we're going to bring it inside we're going to start working with anchoring the room with a table which is the lalique cactus table all glass and on top of that we're going to be using a bakarat nui it's an 18 light candelabra also very suitable to allow the light pass through and so you won't feel like you have this chandelier in the middle it's just very light and this is not the entire collection because my cousin is keeping a lot of them we don't have any more walls we need more space actually we don't have a wine cooler yet okay but we do keep a nice collection of wines okay great with our cereal please close that refrigerator please [Music] [Music] okay we have to be careful also when we do some cooking here that is nothing that is uh causes a lot of uh you know smoke for example one time i i prepared a duck okay this is in new york this was from new york uh and he kept opening the oven so you know leave it like this because then it was gonna be golden on the outside or whatever oh my god all the fats from the duck was glued onto every piece of cabinet everywhere i told them never again will you make a duck in my house and then the smell was in the environment for and we had windows now here we don't have windows so you can imagine if you do cook up a storm it's going to be interesting to see how long the apartment smells like food you can't open a window 92 floors further down aesthetic maintenance chief daniela voiku starts the daily morning briefing with her crew good morning everybody good morning all right their job is to keep the tower in impeccable shape and order inside and out yeah the plan is level 25 you're doing a gender cleaning okay let's start the work okay thank you the work starts in the corridors of the residences with floor cleaning we are preparing right now the carpet for shampooing for the bush khalifa we maintain a five-star standard so every area has to be very very clean we are trying to to keep it as a jewel of the of the town the people have to feel that it's fast free it's uh extremely clean and very very nice we can feel the smell so you the the aroma the cleanness the entire appearance of the side has to be spectacular 300 people work in daniela's crew everything they do is checked and double checked for perfection [Music] during the day the ac is going and then can be some dusty area so we have to make sure everything is clean no spots and shiny very well polished it's good we have about 27 type of stones each one of them has a different different durability and a different way of cleaning or restoring but the lucky thing is that for maintenance we do have only one type of maintenance we have identified one chemical that is is good for maintenance for all the for all the stones gabrielli babini feels his ears popping as he takes the non-stop ride to his workplace on the 123rd floor he is the manager of atmosphere the world's highest restaurant but it's not finished yet gabrielli checks up on the progress of the fit out the opening is very very near will it be finished in time the waiters and cooks are preparing for the big day i don't believe there is a place in the world that there's chefs that enjoy a better view this is where part of the magic is going to happen this is where the chefs will be creating dinner and lunch and as you can see they're commissioning it we are three days from opening and everything looks wonderful dubai is famous for making things happen a lot of places talk about producing and creating but dubai delivers in three days we will be open gourmet chef dwayne cheer is looking for flaws anyway who's going to clean this yeah it's beautiful once once we get it cleaned it should have a coating here no otherwise somebody's going to cut themselves you have to be picky now if you're not picky now then you live with it now and we are going into the most interesting part of the cooking area for atmosphere from here you can see the grill 80 seats wonderfully appointed you wouldn't be able to know it now but this is going to be one of the most elegant dining room and right here we have a very unique concept it's called the jasper oven it's a spanish oven that cooks at high temperature with charcoal basically we have to make a virtue out of a necessity we cannot have gas for safety reason this i we couldn't run lines with gas i mean too too big of a risk a few floors below at the cantonettes the stress level is well even higher no i said not to bring everything because i don't have storage space and things can get damaged okay no i said no so please i don't know what you're gonna do put them outside but i cannot just look i have a crystal tangle there that if anything happens to that tiny ball i am gonna hunt each and every one of you for my tree and take what you're not gonna be installing out we will bring back the other do not leave anything here yes okay guys one other thing the table in that room it's very very fried out delicate okay i do not want anything happening to that table i'm just repeating it again and again okay please i'll make you responsible if anything does happen to the table no problem okay perfection is the only word to describe how the cantinets work their apartment is starting to take shape but first they need to find the right location for the delicate crystal table one foot okay in this direction okay guys guys hello drill to make the aesthetic experience of the building complete the owners also want it to smell nice a unique fragrance created especially for the burj khalifa is circulated throughout the public areas let's see how the membranes are doing [Applause] [Music] special membranes disperse the aroma through the air conditioning system the membranes are filled with natural oils that carry the precious scent around the building [Music] today daniela goes through the final samples of the burj khalifa [Music] so aroma samplers i found finally here that's it okay we've got one or two other variations just to see if you uh if you prefer them they're just numbered if that's better the building itself is very stylish so i actually i really like to think that it's a very stylish smell it's a more mainly smell than a feminine smell it's very subtle it's cedar wood so it's a very very many decent so it is like burj khalifa and you can see now these are the floor grates so you've got fresh air that comes up from here but all of this is fresh air cooled air that's coming up so you get two two effects number one you get cooling here and the other thing that happens is that when residents walk into this lobby they have that aroma that immediately uh if you like greets them the day of the grand opening of the highest restaurant in the world has finally come tonight the first vips will dine at atmosphere 442 meters above the ground but the staff are still busy with preparations chef dwayne briefs his crew on how to use the jasper oven beautiful oven very nice so our only challenge in the middle east is a lot of people like to cook uh well done so by the time mistake gets well done here maybe it's it's uh charcoal i think we have the most modern maybe most modern restaurants in the world but we have super basic cooking methods the tradition of a real italian espresso is handed down to the crew by gabriele more than 5 000 kilometers away from milano before you make anything you need to have a set up randy used to go very fast and the people on the train could not even get out and get a coffee at the bar so somebody invented the machine that would make the coffee fast and the name espresso so when somebody asked for an espresso you better be fast absolutely otherwise no the west is not an espresso it's it's a delay no it's a lately wonderful the official opening ceremony and there are only smiling faces now no wonder nothing more can be done it's the day of truth media from all around the globe have come to capture the occasion the world's highest restaurant atmosphere [Music] flying in from neighboring abu dhabi is the indian billionaire b.r shetty he purchased the entire 100th floor of the burj khalifa we are very very proud of this building and [Music] i'm immensely pleased that i have acquired this property i have got many properties but this is a unique property i will never ever sell this to anybody he probably doesn't have to sell or rent it out either mr shetty's net worth is estimated to be 1.6 billion dollars he made his fortune in health care products like everybody else mr shetty's convoy is checked by security before the barrier is lowered today mr shetty has invited his family three daughters and one son to have a look at the apartments on the 100th floor during the construction time for the whole vicinity maybe two three kilometers nobody was allowed to come in for the security reason i tried many times to come no i'm proud to say i was the first one other outsider to come in when they put the plaster or that slab for the 100th floor that's the time they called me it's a very ceremonial day here and they told me that i was the first one to enter other than the workers this all together three flats you know five thousand square feet each large enough and the whole floor we have taken now you'll be happy to see inside come for mrs shetty it's the first time she has seen her husband's new purchase generally generally procedure his wife has to show the house [Laughter] i came here to take one flat i got an invitation a crystal mutation i thought i am vip i'll be invited i am received by them and they will give me selection options but i had to wait almost two hours in the queue then they crook me inside all sold out no flats available but you have necessity what i can do one hundredth floor available if you want to take it take it just come on i'll take it i was shocked they always is a crazy man with him is always unpredictable only when he wise then he'll come and tell me okay i got this no no i think after 36 years and got used to it the best part about the 100 floor is the amount of glass and the view that you get everywhere now we our primary residence is in abu dhabi but we tend to come all of us as family come on the weekends and during the week as well so we have a place to stay when you come for the weekend who knows when you get married wife wants to remain here stay here no it looks like you can bungee jump from down here first thing i thought about was the evacuation how are they going to evacuate the people who are staying here in such a big building no need to get nervous or don't panic nothing this is just an evacuation drill okay to help us out uh in case of emergency if there is anything we know what we have to do anybody still feeling sleepy in next 5-10 minutes you won't be believe me rafiq qarashi is responsible for safety within the tower today he trains the staff at burj khalifa's observation deck at the top every day thousands of tourists fill the deck and enjoy the view from level 124. but today there are no tourists on the platform the guests are played by staff members will rafiq's crew keep up with the safety standards [Music] some of the actors were ordered to cause trouble level we are in a very sensitive situation [Music] the people are ushered 13 floors down to the nearest safety level into rooms that are especially developed for the burj khalifa the safe area is smoke-proof self-contained and practically indestructible this area where you are it is safe and secure okay because uh burj khalifa team we have explained it to you that this is a pressurized room no smoke can enter in here you are safe over here for a couple of hours anyways you're not going to be here for a couple of hours we will take you out eventually fireproof elevators have taken the guests down and they can leave the building the drill is awesome okay it went very well and each one of you have played a very very good role of being the guest that's how the guests are now you have faced all the question what is there and you know right what's going to happen at time like that so you are prepared to give an answer all right good job everyone hey let's go thank you well done rafiq meets with security boss muhammad al-sharaf for feedback i think you did your best i tried i was monitoring you from the control room how he was reacting and this is in fact is in fact this was the first for this section the first drill and really i'm happy from the reaction of the staff always every drill we have something to learn it's never 100 perfect but we have achieved 92 percent i can say which is amazing no 92 is not amazing [Music] the cantonettes have no idea about the excitement taking place just a few floors above them after a hard day decorating they enjoy the early evening of the jacuzzi at a height of 260 meters [Music] we're very very happy people and this is relaxing you don't have to give anybody instructions right now nor take instructions from anybody [Laughter] this is our time yes [Music] [Music] okay ready another beautiful day [Music] daniela's working day is not finished yet so you started already the wood as well we are we have a few more marks let's get them clean yes so we are having a handover cleaning if the customers decide that they would like to actually keep the cleaning with us after they move in uh we are having packages that are very flexible they can have it in a daily cleaning they can have it twice a week cleaning they can have at any time of the day her team only has one hour to clean the apartment the result is checked with the black light test this is the this is the watermark it's in a heavy light you cannot see the deep marks now i spotted one i take my proper some inspection now i spotted one or two small marks i'll call back my staff and i'll make sure that before leaves ho i mean handing over to the guest these remarks are removed because we want to give the defectory service to the guest in case that you would like to have the windows clean a more frequent basis it could be done anytime if he has a vip visit or in case he rained and he just has one side of the apartment that he is he would like to have it washed we can bring the team in and it can be done it's very unusual to reindeer i mean but there's during the month of december and january does drizzle a little bit and that's the time also that we have high winds so between the sandstorm and a little bit of rain it got a little messy at burj khalifa the job of a window cleaner is very similar to that of a mountaineer the men use carabiners and ropes to reach more than 23 000 windows they need about three months to clean the entire external wall only to start all over again the head of rope access is jamie bunn the glass cleaning and the replacement of glass in the building is one of the most difficult jobs on this project in bush khalifa we are having a large area of coverage it's about 17 football fields soccer fields it's a it's a huge space [Music] jamie checks each and every rope before the work starts [Music] now it's getting round to where we actually need to be um it's cleaning a certain area today it's actually maybe about 30 glass around the building so we must travel uh using two slings attachments everything's being double checked and every anchor points got two points rather than just one point so everything's backed up so it's very very safe to reach the windows of the cantonese apartment the men need to climb down 16 floors [Music] [Music] [Music] look i wonder if they see us no they they cannot see us you know they they well because the window has a reflective treatment look i'm waving okay they cannot see anything see yes they couldn't pay me enough money for me to do that you're worthy [Music] the highest restaurant on earth will open in a few minutes and gabriele uses the calm before the storm to reflect on love and life as a restaurant manager opening a restaurant is like falling in love you lose weight because you forget to eat and you don't sleep so it's absolutely the same so if you want to lose weight come over and a restaurant [Music] [Applause] [Music] it is gabrielli's very last check before the first guest will arrive and the last chance to motivate the team practice is over plenty of space you know where to put the bread where to do the side dishes control everything in out and the first guest of the night wants to sit next to the kitchen that's what i would sit very good very good my cashiers tonight no mistakes this is money serious business ashar yes you're ready so are you ready tonight first night huh i mean you have a fantastic team you're the best chef in new zealand and what are you laughing at so and you are one of the best i ever worked with so for three weeks or three weeks so i'm going to take care of other things but uh okay are you ready i know you are yeah we're ready we're ready as we're ever gonna be but not everything is ready yet my friend we need uh we have people here so so fast fast fast six o'clock six you guys need to be done please please now the guests wait while the vip guests enjoy the first ever dinner at atmosphere 442 meters below the canternets use the walkway from the tower to dubai mall it is the largest shopping mall in the world they're nice and fresh hi raymond hi how are you okay well you know what i would like to do yeah can i just uh pay so that you can send them up all right okay for my house i love white flowers white flowers bring angels and they clean the space and it attracts good energy and normally i have white flowers in my house every week [Music] this is good for the bath you know do you sell these it would be great to have a couple of them for home you can just send them all yeah include them you should just call me okay thank you it's living in a vertical city but having the best you know at your fingertips it's perfect you press a button and the world's right there everything you possibly need the bank the food the flowers clothing if you need clothing anything you want it's all here and everybody delivers [Music] the burj khalifa has become the heart of a brand new district called downtown dubai it is a business hub the living quarter for thousands of people and a prime destination for tourists gentlemen how are you hello i think that those are ours yes thank you do you want him to deliver no that's okay we'll check it out we'll check it out i mean they've always delivered it but today i want to hold them thank you thank you see you later yes okay you like them i love them thank you you deserve them i love you the burj khalifa has come to life every night the dubai fountain shoots up water to the rhythm of music attracting thousands of visitors and of course with water reaching 150 meters high it is the tallest performing fountain in the world owning space in this vertical city has become a source of pride for a man who can own almost anything one two three third platform same way we have our flat i'm the happiest man and as on today i have achieved everything it has become the workplace and success story for gabrielle the italian restaurant manager who has seen the world ah fantastico it's been a bit over a month you can see my air have grown considerably they are wilder than ever but the restaurant is just it keeps being super super successful now we are booked almost a month in advance and the burj khalifa has become home to a happy couple that has moved from america to dubai hey gorgeous it's really like feeling like a home now finally finally look at this well here we are now i hope you remember our very beginning the conversations and the space and everything we set out to do so as you can see we took out the original brown cabinet and made space for our main centerpiece which is this large painting then we took the bar area out we covered it to put another beautiful painting and we actually as i said we would do we placed the table and the chandeliers that are center pieces in the room to make the light go through it that they would not be obstructive so that it would really bring the outdoor indoor not only through the glass the mirrors but the color of the wall if i walk down here this is where we after the day's work we hang out here please and stay stay yes okay so we're home if we were in new york we would probably be facing other buildings yet here you know on the 92nd floor of burj khalifa look at the view around you it's only available here at the burj khalifa nowhere else in the world nowhere else and that was you know one of the reasons that we wanted to be here yeah we are you know living in a piece of history let's say yeah okay i love how the apartment came out i love the location of the building i love the staff in the building and i love you too heaven i'm in heaven [Music] this was the story of the tallest building on earth and the people inside it the burj khalifa will see many more stories for many more years to [Music] come [Music] you

Channel: Free Documentary

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Rating: 4.7693887 out of 5

Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), engineering, engineering documentary, constructions, construction documentary, megastructures, engineers at work, construction, technology, technology documentary, tech documentary, tallest tower, biggest tower, tallest tower in the world, Burj Khalifa documentary, Burj Khalifa, dubai construction, biggest building

Id: NJI8mOv4VW4

Length: 52min 32sec (3152 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 17 2021