Burj Khalifa

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

As the world’s tallest building, eclipsing its nearest peer by 320 metres, this structure sets a new standard for engineering accomplishment, from the core structural system in which three wings buttress one another through a six-sided central core, to the wind tunnel modelling employed to design the setbacks in such a way as to ‘confuse the wind’ and avoid vortices. Combine these engineering feats and firsts with an architecture that strives for the heroic and monumental in its use of overlapping Islamic geometries and in its architectural references and abstractions, and the outcome is a building that aspires to the iconic.

Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture