Day Twelve: Burj Khalifa

Over the summer I created over 35 achievement badges for the Withings Health Mate fitness app.

Day twelve is the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai.

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“Burj Khalifa is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is the tallest man-made structure in the world, at 829.8 m (2,722 ft). The design of Burj Khalifa is derived from patterning systems embodied in Islamic architecture. The building has returned the location of Earth's tallest freestanding structure to the Middle East, where the Great Pyramid of Giza had claimed this achievement for almost four millennia before being surpassed in 1311 by Lincoln Cathedral in England.

To wash the 24,348 windows, a horizontal track has been installed on the exterior at levels 40, 73, and 109. Each track holds a 1,500 kg (3,300 lb) bucket machine which moves horizontally and then vertically using heavy cables. The top of the spire, however, is reserved for specialist window cleaners, who brave the heights and high winds dangling by ropes to clean and inspect the top of the pinnacle. Under normal conditions, it will take 36 workers three to four months to clean the entire exterior façade.”

(From Wikipedia)

Posted on Nov 30, 2013

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