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Building very high Plans have been unveiled to construct an incredibly tall skyscraper in the Gulf. One has to admire the sheer brio of the project, even if, at a time of global economic worries, such a project smacks of possible financial hubris. The region’s oil wealth may last a while yet and Dubai has taken strides in making itself less dependent on the stuff, but I do wonder what will happen in say, 10 or 20 years’ time if, for any reason, the oil revenues seriously go into decline.
Even so, it says a lot about how strong modern building materials now are that such a building is even thinkable.
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I dunno about Dubai. It’s a bit of a muddle. It’s where the bikini and the Burkha clash head-on. It’s the second most common long-haul tourist destination for the UK after Florida though.
I think I’ll stick with Florida. The whole idea of holidaying in a “compound” doesn’t fry my onions.
Dubai could all go horribly pear-shaped. It’s a very odd place. Sort of like Vegas with Shariah law (sort-of). Only 20% of the population are actually from there. Some poor British guy did 4 years in chokey for possession of 0.003g of cannabis which they found on the sole of his shoe. As I live on the outskirts of Manchester I gotta be carrying double that at least.
“Financial hubris” is one way to put it. Or, you could say someone somewhere is overcompensating for something.
I look at this sort of thing and think of Nauru. At current prices I give oil no more than fifteen years before we got viable, non subsidised, cheaper alternatives. Orbital Solar is my guess.
Then the whole mid east will go the way of Nauru.
The Arabian Gulf has a major fault zone running right through it, and there are often sizeable earthquakes in the area of southern Iran. One good big one some time could bring the lot down on the other side of the water. This may well be why at one time they preferred the safety, coolness, and comfort of well appointed tents.
Rather telling that at this point, no one has even mentioned the terror angle.
I was convinced circa 2002-3 that these buildings were over. If there were people out there willing to do what was done on 9/11, then they probably would do it again eventually one way or another.
Worth pointing out is that Mohammed Atta et al have a weird bug up their ass about tall buildings in particular, an “affront to Allah” or some such hopped up madness.
Maybe Dubai is in a region that doesn’t have to sorry about such things (hah), but the point is, the bigger they are, the bigger the splash they make when some nutcase chooses to go after them.
But wadda I know.
Oil revenues could go seriously into decline in 10 or 20 days, not years. The crude price has already come down almost $60/barrel from the peak.
So….
In a few years some Presbyterian church ladies can hijack an A380 Airbus and smash it into the tower?
Interestingly, flushing all of the toilets on the 200th floor would produce nearly 1400 psi of pressure in the sewage pipes at the ground-floor level.*
So, whereas the 9/11 crowd had to receive flight training, the crowd that targets Dubai will simply need a good watch, and a steady hand.
(*Absent flow restrictions, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sue me.)
Ironically, most absurdly high buildings have actually been build right before a major depression set in.
As for Dubai, they are doing this (and the other crazy stuff, artificial islands and the like) precisely because they want to stay in business post-oil. If they can manage to pull it off, it’ll remain a major financial and touristic center in the Middle East. Definitely a better idea than what the other emirates or Saudi Arabia are doing.
As for Dubai, they are doing this (and the other crazy stuff, artificial islands and the like) precisely because they want to stay in business post-oil.
Sounds like a case of “If you build it they will come”.
They need people providing real services that can be traded across borders for this to work. Good luck to them, but Nauru tried the same trick. They invested until all the money was gone.