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Abu Dhabi is the capital and the second-most populous city of the United Arab Emirates (after Dubai). The city of Abu Dhabi is located on an island in the Persian Gulf, off the Central West Coast. Most of the city and the Emirate reside on the mainland connected to the rest of the country. As of 2020, Abu Dhabi's urban area had an estimated population of 1.48 million, out of 2.9 million in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, as of 2016.
Abu Dhabi houses local and federal government offices and is the home of the United Arab Emirates Government and the Supreme Petroleum Council. The city is home to the President of the UAE, who is a member of the Al Nahyan family. Abu Dhabi's rapid development and urbanization, coupled with the massive oil and gas reserves and production and relatively high average income, have transformed it into a large, developed metropolis. It is the country's center of politics and industry, and a major culture and commerce center. Abu Dhabi accounts for about two-thirds of the roughly $400 billion UAE economy.
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The Aldar Headquarters building is the first circular building of its kind in the Middle East. It is located in Al Raha, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The shape of this building is achieved through the use of structural diagrid, a diagonal grid of steel.
The building features the following elevators:
12 passenger elevators
2 service elevators
3 mono space elevators
1 circular hydraulic lift
2 dumbwaiters
23 floors
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A dallah is a traditional Arabic coffee pot used for centuries to brew and serve Qahwa, an Arabic coffee or Gulf coffee made through a multi-step ritual, and Khaleeji, a spicy, bitter coffee traditionally served during feasts like Eid al-Fitr.
It is commonly used in the coffee tradition of the Arabian peninsula and of the Bedouins.Old Bedouins used the ritual of coffee preparation, serving and drinking as a sign of hospitality, generosity and wealth. In much of the Middle East, it is still connected to socializing with friends, family and business partners, so it is typically present in the main rites of passage, such as births, marriages and funerals and some business meetings.
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Atlantis The Palm, Dubai is a luxury hotel resort located at the apex of the Palm Jumeirah in the United Arab Emirates. It was the first resort to be built on the island and is themed on the myth of Atlantis but includes distinct Arabian elements. The resort opened on September 24, 2008 as a joint venture between Kerzner International Holdings Limited and Istithmar.
n October 2007, the hotel received a shipment of 28 bottlenose dolphins from the Solomon Islands, to be used as part of their aquarium exhibit, called Dolphin Bay. The move was decried by several environmental groups, particularly for the fact that the export of dolphins had earlier been banned by the Solomon Islands government (after a similar controversial shipment to Mexico). Hotel managers have said that though the dolphins are being trained to interact with visitors, they will not appear in any sort of show or circus-like performance. They have also stated that the health of the dolphins is paramount, and because the bottlenose is not an endangered species, their shipment did not pose a problem. The deal was done with the approval of the United Arab Emirates and Solomon Island governments, through the company Solomon Islands Marine Mammal Education Centre and Exporters Limited (who had overturned the earlier ban in court). The amount of money paid for the dolphins has not been disclosed.
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The Burj Al Arab is a luxury hotel located in the city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Managed by Jumeirah hotel group, it is one of the tallest hotels in the world, although 39% of its total height is made up of non-occupiable space. Burj Al Arab stands on an artificial island 280 m (920 ft) from Jumeirah Beach and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge. The shape of the structure is designed to resemble the sail of a ship. It has a helipad near the roof at a height of 210 m (689 ft) above ground. The Burj Al Arab was designed by multidisciplinary consultancy Atkins led by architect Tom Wright. The design and construction were managed by Canadian engineer Rick Gregory also of WS Atkins. Construction of the island began in 1994 and involved up to 2,000 construction workers during peak construction. It was built to resemble the billowing spinnaker sail of a J-class yacht.Two 'wings' spread in a V to form a vast 'mast', while the space between them is enclosed in a massive atrium.
The hotel was built by South African construction contractor Murray & Roberts / now renamed Concor and Al Habtoor Engineering and the interior works were delivered by UAE based Depa.
The building opened in December 1999.
The hotel's helipad was designed by Irish architect Rebecca Gernon. The helipad is above the building's 59th floor, and has been used as a car race track, a boxing ring, a tennis match, and the jumping off point for the highest kite surfing jump in history.
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The Burj Khalifa, known as the Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration in 2010, is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With a total height of 829.8 m (2,722 ft, just over half a mile) and a roof height (excluding antenna, but including a 244 m spire) of 828 m (2,717 ft), the Burj Khalifa has been the tallest structure and building in the world since its topping out in 2009.
Construction of the Burj Khalifa began in 2004, with the exterior completed five years later in 2009. The primary structure is reinforced concrete. The building was opened in 2010 as part of a new development called Downtown Dubai. It is designed to be the centrepiece of large-scale, mixed-use development. The decision to construct the building is based on the government's decision to diversify from an oil-based economy, and for Dubai to gain international recognition. The building was originally named Burj Dubai but was renamed in honour of the ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the United Arab Emirates, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan; Abu Dhabi and the UAE government lent Dubai money to pay its debts. The building broke numerous height records, including its designation as the tallest building in the world.
Burj Khalifa was designed by Adrian Smith, of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, whose firm designed the Willis Tower and One World Trade Center. Hyder Consulting was chosen to be the supervising engineer with NORR Group Consultants International Limited chosen to supervise the architecture of the project. The design is derived from the Islamic architecture of the region, such as in the Great Mosque of Samarra. The Y-shaped tripartite floor geometry is designed to optimize residential and hotel space. A buttressed central core and wings are used to support the height of the building. Although this design was derived from Tower Palace III, the Burj Khalifa's central core houses all vertical transportation with the exception of egress stairs within each of the wings. The structure also features a cladding system which is designed to withstand Dubai's hot summer temperatures. It contains a total of 57 elevators and 8 escalators.
At a certain point in the architectural and engineering process, the original Emaar developers experienced financial problems, and required more money and economic funding. Sheikh Khalifa, the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, granted monetary aid and funding, hence resulting in the changing of the name to 'Burj Khalifa'. The concept of profitability derived from building high density developments and malls around the landmark have proven successful. Its surrounding malls, hotels and condominiums in Downtown Dubai have generated the most revenue from the project as a whole, while the Burj Khalifa itself made little or no profit.
Critical reception to Burj Khalifa has been generally positive, and the building has received many awards. However, there were numerous complaints concerning migrant workers from South Asia who were the primary building labor force. These centered on low wages and the practice of confiscating passports until duties were complete. Several suicides were reported.
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Cayan Tower, known as Infinity Tower before it was inaugurated, is a 306-metre-tall (1,004 ft), 75-story skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates by Cayan Real Estate Investment and Development. The tower is designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill SOM architectural group, the same group who did the concept design for the Burj Khalifa, also in Dubai, and Trump Tower in Chicago. Upon its opening on 10 June 2013, the tower became world's tallest high-rise building with a twist of 90 degrees. This record has since been surpassed by the Shanghai Tower, which opened in February 2015. The twisting design of Cayan Tower was achieved by rotating each floor 1.2 degrees around a cylindrical elevator and service core. Cayan Tower's apartments are designed with reconstituted wooden floors, Chinese synthetic marble counter tops, and kitchen fixtures. The tower also includes a five-story parking garage behind it. The rooms of the tower are designed in such a way that it wouldn't be affected by direct sunlight due to titanium-colored metal panels on cast-in-place concrete columns aided with repetitive staggered screen panels to stop penetrating sunlight from disturbing the residents of the unit. The lack of balcony space helps with the feeling of enclosure and passive solar shading.
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The Dynamic Tower (also known as Dynamic Architecture Building or the Da Vinci Tower) is a proposed 420-metre (1,378 ft), 80-floor moving skyscraper, designed by architect David Fisher.
Similar to the Suite Vollard completed in 2001 in Brazil, each floor is designed to rotate independently, resulting in a changing shape of the tower. Each floor is designed to rotate a maximum of 6 metres (20 ft) per minute, or one full rotation in 180 minutes.
It was proposed as the world's first prefabricated skyscraper with 40 factory-built modules for each floor.Fisher said that 90% of the tower could be built in a factory and shipped to the construction site. This would allow the entire building to be built more quickly. The core of the tower must be built at the construction site. Fisher said that the prefabricated portions would decrease the project's cost and the number of workers, and that construction will take 30% less time than a normal skyscraper of the same size. The majority of the workers would be in factories, working under safer conditions. Kitchen and bathroom fixtures would be pre-installed. The core would serve each floor with a special, patented connection for clean water, based on technology used to refuel airplanes in mid-flight.
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The Emirates Office Tower, is a 56-floor office building along Sheikh Zayed Road in the city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Connected with the 56-floor Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel by a retail boulevard, the two towers form what is commonly referred to as the Emirates Towers complex. The tower has a total structural height of 354.6 m (1,163 ft) and roof height of 311 m (1,020 ft), making it the 55th-tallest building in the world. The Emirates Office Tower One is taller than the neighbouring Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel, but has two fewer floors. Construction of the building was completed on November 3, 1999. The Emirates Office Tower is located in the financial centre of Dubai. The Emirates Towers complex designed by NORR represents modern business age architecture. Two equilateral triangles are one of their kind in Dubai. The tower consists of three large core walls. The walls support the load transferred at four levels by large steel trusses, which are connected to the cores with the aid of post tensioning and shear stud connection. A curved wall rising almost the whole height of one face of the triangular building provides a view of the city.
The Emirates Office Tower building is surrounded by clad in silver aluminium panels, silver and copper reflective glass. Flanking each tower at the base is a low curvilinear structure, that houses parking and service elements. Both towers rise from a terraced podium featuring a boutique retail mall, restaurants, and cafes with leasable retail area of 80,730 sf (7,500 sm), at the three storey base. Landscaping is an integral feature of the design with undulating land forms, water features, and a variety of plants creating a unique development in downtown Dubai. Located along the Sheikh Zayed road the buildings are one of the most distinctive pairs of skyscrapers.
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Etihad Towers is a complex of buildings with five towers in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates.The towers are located opposite the Emirates Palace hotel and feature offices, apartments and a hotel. The estimated cost for the construction are 2.5 bn Dirhams. Towers 2 and 5 topped out in November 2010.
A year later, in November 2011, the Jumeirah at Etihad Towers Hotel which belongs to Jumeirah Group was opened in Tower 1. Tori No Su Japanese restaurant opened within the hotel in 2012. The hotel has been rebranded to Conrad Abu Dhabi Etihad Towers which opened doors in Tower 1 on October 1, 2020. The adjacent Tower 2 is (as of December 2012) the tallest building on Abu Dhabi island and the second tallest in Abu Dhabi after Sky Tower on Al Reem Island. Tower 2 has an observation deck on the 75th floor which is accessible from the hotel via a lower level linking podium.
Tower 1: 69 floors, 277 metres
Tower 2: 74 floors, 305 metres
Tower 3: 54 floors, 260 metres
Tower 4: 61 floors, 234 metres
Tower 5: 55 floors, 218 metres
The towers were used as a filming location for the 2015 film Furious 7. In the film, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) steal a Lykan HyperSport and drive it through three of the towers.
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Palm Islands are three artificial islands, Palm Jumeirah, Deira Island and Palm Jebel Ali, on the coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Creation of the islands started in 2001. The construction of the Dubai Palm Islands has had a significant impact on the surrounding environment, resulting in changes to area wildlife, coastal erosion, alongshore sediment transport and wave patterns. Sediment stirred up by construction has suffocated and injured local marine fauna and reduced the amount of sunlight which filters down to seashore vegetation. Variations in alongshore sediment transport have resulted in changes in erosion patterns along the UAE coast, which has also been exacerbated by altered wave patterns as the waters of the Persian Gulf attempt to move around the new obstruction of the islands
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The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is located in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The largest mosque in the country, it is the key place of worship for daily, Friday and Eid prayers. During Eid, it may be visited by more than 41,000 people. The design of the Sheikh Zayed Mosque has been inspired by Persian, Mughal, and the Alexandrian Mosque of Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi Mosque in Egypt, also the Indo-Islamic mosque architecture, particularly the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan being direct influences. The dome layout and floorplan of the mosque was inspired by the Badshahi Mosque. Its archways are quintessentially Moorish, and its minarets classically Arab.
Under lead contractor Impregilo (Italy), more than 3,000 workers and 38 sub-contracting companies were conscripted in its construction. The mosque was completed under a second contract by a Joint Venture between ACC and Six Construct (part of BESIX ) between 2004 and 2007. Natural materials were chosen for much of its design and construction due to their long-lasting qualities, including marble stone, gold, semi-precious stones, crystals and ceramics. Artisans and materials came from many countries including India, Italy, Germany, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, Pakistan, Malaysia, Iran, China, United Kingdom, New Zealand, North Macedonia and the UAE.
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