In these credit crunch times, you can just about bet that if anything is still going up, it is going up in Dubai. So here's a quick guide to some of the more obscene and audacious projects under construction right now.
5. O-14, Business Bay
Architects Reiser + Umemoto originally dreamed this building up as a curtain-wall tower, but decided that would be "ridiculous in Dubai". A much more sane idea obviously was to build a tower with no interior columns, held up by an exoskeleton that has 1,300 holes in it. The 22 storey building will be made of concrete with steel reinforcement. Its exoskeleton acts as a chimney that cools the building and is connected to the slab via "tongues".
4. Falconcity of Wonders
Always dreamed of seeing the seven wonders of the world, but don't like travelling? Why not try Falconcity of Wonders - home to all your favourite ancient wonders plus a few modern ones like the Eiffel Tower and Leaning Tower of Pisa to keep even the fussiest sightseer happy. Yep, Dubai really will be the centre of the world when it finishes construction of its own Taj Mahal, pyramid, hanging gardens of Babylon and Great Wall - not to mention a few others. Oh, and when viewed from space, the city will resemble a falcon. Of course.
3. Burj Dubai
It may not be finished but that hasn't stopped this massive tower taking out the title of the world's tallest man-made structure ever built. Standing at around 707m, it is expected to get as high as 818m. It's also setting construction records left and right, with concrete being pumped 601m high and workers to put in 22 million man hours by its' completion in September 2009. Interestingly, ice is added to make sure the concrete can withstand hot Gulf weather and the weight bearing down on it.
2. Hydropolis
It gets pretty hot in Dubai, so you can kind of see where designers got the inspiration to build an entire hotel the size of Hyde Park under water. The £300m Hydropolis project will be reinforced by concrete and steel with Plexiglas walls and bubble-shaped dome ceilings that let visitors see the marine life around them. But construction hasn't gone swimmingly, with contracts cancelled or delayed. It should be open late 2009.
1. The World
Could there be a more audacious name for a building project? Thumbing its' nose at rising sea levels, Dubai is building 300 islands in the shape of the world 4km offshore. Initial development is completed and 232km of shoreline has been created. Rumoured to have bought their own piece of the world are Posh and Becks, drummer Tommy Lee and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
