Dubai 2014 firework display breaks world record: Guinness

DUBAI: Dubai shattered the world record for the largest ever pyrotechnic display on New Year’s Eve with a show involving more than half a million fireworks, Guinness World Records said Wednesday.

“Ten months in planning, over 500,000 fireworks were used during the  display which lasted around six minutes, with Guinness World Records  adjudicators on hand to confirm that a new record had been set,” the Guinness  website said.

The display spanned 94 kilometres (58.4 miles) of the Dubai coast, which  boasts an archipelago of man-made islands and Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest  tower, Guinness said.

Enough fireworks were launched in the first minute of the display to break  the previous record, set by Kuwait in 2011 with an hour-long show of 77,282  fireworks.

The main displays took place at Burj Khalifa and the luxurious Atlantis  hotel located in Palm Jumeirah, one of three palm-shaped islands.

US firm Fireworks by Grucci designed the display, Guinness said, using 100  computers and 200 technicians to synchronise the pyrotechnics at a reported  cost of around $6 million (4.3 million euros).

Dubai boasts the world’s tallest tower, its largest man-made island and one  of the world’s busiest airports. 

It set its latest record in May last year with Dubai, Princess Tower,  recorded by Guinness as the world’s tallest residential building.

Dubai has been vying to become a permanent fixture on the world map of New  Year celebrations, staging spectacular shows since the opening of the 828-metre  (2,716-foot) Burj Khalifa tower in 2010. AFP

Fireworks explode from the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower, in Dubai on January 1, 2014 to celebrate the new year. Dubai kicked off New Year with a dazzling bid for a new world record to cap those the Gulf city state already holds for its mammoth property developments. The glittering fireworks display that lasted around six minutes spanned over 100 kilometres (60 miles) of the Dubai coast, which boasts an archipelago of man-made islands and Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower. 

Huge Basket Headquarters

A basket company called Longaberger in Newark, US, looks like this!The Longaberger corporate headquarters on State Route 16 is a local landmark and a well-known example of novelty architecture, since it takes the shape of their biggest seller, the "Medium Market Basket". The seven story, 180,000 square foot building opened in 1997. The basket handles weigh almost 150 tons and can be heated during cold weather to prevent ice damage.

Most beautiful Piano House -China

The Piano House located in Huainan City, An Hui Province, China. It contains a transparent violin and a piano building. Inside the violin, there is staircase toward the piano house upstairs.
This building built for music lovers acts as a performance and practicing place to music students from the local college in Huainan City, east China. It also displays various city plans and development prospects in an effort to draw interest into the recently developed area.

The Piano House is in Huainan, Anhui province, China. It serves as the local urban planning exhibition hall for the developing region, and is a tourist attraction in its own right.

This architectural innovation makes a pretty cool house, but one with little privacy given the unique appeal. People just have to see this cool house and amazing architecture. There is an escalator inside the glass cello entrance that takes one up to the main part of the house – the piano itself. However, this is not a private house, so its public appeal is very much a purposeful attempt to draw attention. The building displays various city plans and development prospects in an effort to draw interest into the recently developed area.

How Undersea Cables are Laid by Cable Ships?

Recently there was a disruption on the SEA-ME-WE 4 cable connecting SEACOM to London through the Mediterranean Sea.Due to this we had various questions asking us exactly how undersea cables are laid. This short video explains the process SEACOM took while laying the undersea cable.With the global explosion of world-wide telecommunication, the demand for underwater communication has become increasingly requisite. Underwater cables are laid from specially designed cable ships which can stock thousands of miles of coiled cable in their holds. The special amplifiers, spaced about 25 miles apart, within these undersea cables, are used usually to boost up the voltage of the signals carried in them in order to prevent the losses in the cable.
However, the cable ships must take necessary measures while laying out the fiber optic cables in the sea bed to ensure that they do not break and the amplifiers do not get damaged, and can work for many decades uninterruptedly. 

List of tallest buildings and structures in the world

The world's tallest man-made structure is the 829.8 m (2,722 ft) tall Burj Khalifa in Dubai,United Arab Emirates. The building gained the official title of "Tallest Building in the World" at its opening on January 4, 2010.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, an organization that certifies buildings as the "World’s Tallest", recognizes a building only if at least fifty percent of its height is made up of floor plates containing habitable floor area. Structures that do not meet this criterion, such as the CN Tower, are defined as "towers".

There are dozens of radio and television broadcasting towers which measure over 600 metres (about 2,000 ft) in height, and only the tallest are recorded in publicly available information sources.

Category	Structure	Country	City	Height (metres)	Height (feet)	Year Built	Coordinates
Skyscraper	Burj Khalifa	United Arab Emirates	Dubai	829.8	2,722	2010	25°11′50.0″N55°16′26.6″E
Self supporting tower	Tokyo Sky Tree	Japan	Tokyo	634	2,080	2011	35°42′36.5″N139°48′39″E
Guyed Mast	KVLY-TV mast	United States	Blanchard	628.8	2,063	1963	47°20′31.85″N97°17′21.13″W
Clock building	Abraj Al Bait Towers	Saudi Arabia	Mecca	601	1,972	2011	21°25′08″N39°49′35″E
Mast radiator	Lualualei VLF transmitter	United States	Lualualei	458	1,503	1962	21°25′11.87″N158°08′53.67″W ; 21°25′13.38″N158°09′14.35″W
Twin towers	Petronas Twin Towers	Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur	452	1,482	1998	3°09′27.45″N101°42′40.7″E; 3°09′29.45″N101°42′43.4″E
Chimney	Ekibastuz GRES-2 Power Station	Kazakhstan	Ekibastusz	419.7	1,377	1987	52°1′26.3″N75°28′34.5″E
Radar	Dimona Radar Facility	Israel	Dimona	400	1,312	2008	30°58′6.93″N35°05′49.64″E ; 30°58′32.46″N35°05′55.25″E
Lattice tower	Kiev TV Tower	Ukraine	Kiev	385	1,263	1973	50°28′16.49″N30°27′11.97″E
Electricity pylon	Zhoushan Island Overhead Powerline Tie	China	Damao	370	1,214	2009	29°56′2.78″N122°2′10.12″E ; 29°54′41.39″N122°1′26.38″E
Partially guyed tower	Gerbrandy Tower	Netherlands	IJsselstein	366.8	1,203	1961	52°00′36.24″N05°03′12.87″E
Guyed tubular steel mast	TV Tower Vinnytsia	Ukraine	Vinnytsia	354	1,161	1961	49°14′30.04″N28°25′25.25″E
Bridge pillar	Millau Viaduct	France	Millau	342	1,122	2004	44°05′09.97″N03°01′17.94″E
Meteorological tower	Obninsk Meteorological tower	Russia	Obninsk	315	1034	1958	55°06′42″N36°35′34″E
Blaw-Knox Tower	Lakihegy Tower	Hungary	Szigetszentmiklós-Lakihegy	314	1,031	1933, 1968	47°22′23″N19°00′16″E
Dam	Nurek Dam	Tajikistan	Nurek	300	984	1980	38°22′17.09″N69°20′53.57″E
Concrete dam	Grande Dixence Dam	Switzerland	Val d'Hérens	285	935	1965	46°4′49.89″N7°24′13.13″E
Minaret	Hassan II Mosque	Morocco	Casablanca	210	689	1993	33°36′28.71″N7°37′58.16″W
Wind turbine	Two on lattice towers	Poland	Nowy Tomyśl	210	689	2012
Cooling tower	Niederaussem Power Station	Germany	Niederaussem	200	656	2003	50°59′45.91″N6°40′16.79″E
Monument	Gateway Arch	United States	St. Louis	192	630	1965	38°37′28.62″N90°11′5.87″W
Water tower	Main tower of Kuwait Towers	Kuwait	Kuwait City	187	614	1979	29°23′22.75″N48°00′11.57″E
Wooden structure	ATLAS-I at Kirtland Air Force Base	United States	Albuquerque	180	600	1980	35.029898°N 106.557574°W

Eiffel Tower construction..

 The Eiffel Tower is an iron lattice tower located in Paris, named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 7.1 million people ascended it in 2011. The third level observatory's upper platform is at 279.11 m the highest accessible to public in the European Union and the highest in Europe as long as the platform of the Ostankino Tower, at 360 m, remains closed as a result of the fire of August 2000. The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.

The tower stands 320 metres (1,050 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. However, because of the addition, in 1957, of the antenna atop the Eiffel Tower, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building. 

The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend, by stairs or lift(elevator), to the first and second levels. The walk from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by lift - stairs exist but they are not usually open for public use. Both the first and second levels feature restaurants.

Construction

No more than three hundred workers were employed on site, and because Eiffel took safety precautions, including the use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died during construction.At first the legs were constructed as cantilevers but about halfway to the first level construction was paused in order to construct a substantial timber scaffold. This caused a renewal of the concerns about the structural soundness of the project, and sensational headlines such as "Eiffel Suicide!" and "Gustave Eiffel has gone mad: he has been confined in an Asylum" appeared in the popular press. At this stage a small "creeper" crane was installed in each leg, designed to move up the tower as construction progressed and making use of the guides for the lifts which were to be fitted in each leg. The critical stage of joining the four legs at the first level was complete by March 1888. Although the metalwork had been prepared with the utmost precision, provision had been made to carry out small adjustments in order to precisely align the legs: hydraulic jacks were fitted to the shoes at the base of each leg, each capable of exerting a force of 800 tonnes, and in addition the legs had been intentionally constructed at a slightly steeper angle than necessary, being supported by sandboxes on the scaffold.Work on the foundations started in January 1887. Those for the east and south legs were straightforward, each leg resting on four 2 m (6.6 ft) concrete slabs, one for each of the principal girders of each leg but the other two, being closer to the river Seine were more complicated: each slab needed two piles installed by using compressed-air caissons 15 m (49 ft) long and 6 m (20 ft) in diameter driven to a depth of 22 m (72 ft) to support the concrete slabs, which were 6 m (20 ft) thick. Each of these slabs supported a block built of limestone each with an inclined top to bear a supporting shoe for the ironwork. Each shoe was anchored into the stonework by a pair of bolts 10 cm (4 in) in diameter and 7.5 m (25 ft) long. The foundations were complete by 30 June and the erection of the ironwork began. The very visible work on-site was complemented by the enormous amount of exacting preparatory work that was entailed: the drawing office produced 1,700 general drawings and 3,629 detailed drawings of the 18,038 different parts needed. The task of drawing the components was complicated by the complex angles involved in the design and the degree of precision required: the position of rivet holes was specified to within 0.1 mm (0.04 in) and angles worked out to one second of arc. The finished components, some already riveted together into sub-assemblies, arrived on horse-drawn carts from the factory in the nearby Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret and were first bolted together, the bolts being replaced by rivets as construction progressed. No drilling or shaping was done on site: if any part did not fit it was sent back to the factory for alteration. In all there were 18,038 pieces joined by two and a half million rivets.

DESIGN OF THE TOWER

Material

The puddled iron (wrought iron) structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes, while the entire structure, including non-metal components, is approximately 10,000 tonnes. As a demonstration of the economy of design, if the 7,300 tonnes of the metal structure were melted down it would fill the 125-meter-square base to a depth of only 6 cm (2.36 in), assuming the density of the metal to be 7.8 tonnes per cubic meter  Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7.1 in) because of thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel

 Marina Bay Sands is an Integrated Resort fronting Marina Bay in Singapore. Developed by Las Vegas Sands, it is billed as the world's most expensive standalone casino property at S$8 billion, including cost of the prime land.

With the casino complete, the resort features a 2,561-room hotel, a 1,300,000-square-foot (120,000 m²) convention-exhibition centre, the 800,000-square-foot (74,000 m²) The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands mall, a museum, two large theatres, seven "celebrity chef" restaurants, two floating Crystal Pavilions, an ice skating rink, and the world's largest atrium casino with 500 tables and 1,600 slot machines. The complex is topped by a 340m-long SkyPark with a capacity of 3,900 people and a 150m infinity swimming pool, set on top of the world's largest public cantilevered platform, which overhangs the north tower by 67m. The 20-hectare resort was designed by Moshe Safdie Architects.

 The grand opening of Marina Bay Sands was held on 17 February 2011.

 The resort is designed by Moshe Safdie, who says it was initially inspired by card decks. In addition to the casino, other key components of the plan are three hotel towers with 2,500 rooms and suites, a 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m²) Art Science Museum and a convention centre with 1,200,000 square feet (110,000 m²) of space, capable of accommodating up to 45,000 people.

Marina Bay Sands features three 55-story hotel towers which were topped out in July 2009. The three towers are connected by a 1 hectare sky terrace on the roof, named Sands SkyPark.

In front of the three towers include a Theatre Block, a Convention and Exhibition Facilities Block, as well as the Casino Block, which have up to 1000 gaming tables and 1400 slot machines. The ArtScience Museum is constructed next to the three blocks and has the shape of a lotus. Its roof will be retractable, providing a waterfall through the roof of collected rainwater when closed in the day and with laser shows when opened at night. In front of the Event Plaza is the Wonder Full show, a light and water spectacular that is the largest in Southeast Asia. The ArtScience Museum and Wonder Full show opened on 17 February 2011.

The SkyPark is home to the world's longest elevated swimming pool, with a 146-metre (478 ft) vanishing edge, perched 191 metres above the ground. The pools are made up of 422,000 pounds of stainless steel and can hold 376,500 gallons (1424 cubic metres) of water. The SkyPark also boasts rooftop restaurants such as The Sky on 57, nightclubs, lush gardens, hundreds of trees and plants, and a public observatory deck on the cantilever with 360-degree views of the Singapore skyline.

There are four movement joints beneath the main pools, designed to help them withstand the natural motion of the towers, and each joint has a unique range of motion. The total range of motion is 500 millimetres. In addition to wind, the hotel towers are also subject to settlement in the earth over time, so engineers built and installed custom jack 

World’s Largest Building

 World’s Largest Building

For decades, the Pentagon has had the distinction of being the world’s largest building, but that is about to change . . .

Let me introduce to you Crystal Island, soon to be located in Moscow, Russia. This building is not just big, it’s enormous!

 This building, according to Nubricks, “will cover a staggering 2,670,000 square meters, stand 450 meters tall and will cost an estimated $4 billion.” Additionally, it is slated to have “3000 hotel rooms, 900 serviced apartments, a business centre, office spaces, a sports centre, entertainment centre and shopping mall as well as an international school, restaurants and cafes. Visitor numbers are expected to be high and there is a planned 16,500 space car park to accommodate them.”
From the look of the plans above, it appears that planners have taken into account solar and wind power, and have focused on keeping the design environmentally friendly in many other ways as well.

It looks like the rest of the world has returned to a battle for skyscraper supremacy – a battle the USA doesn’t quite have the funds to get involved in – anyone see the new Freedom Tower in NYC? I know I don’t! Maybe China and the Middle East can spare a few more dimes to help the poor old US of A out . . . again.

One thing is certain, Crystal Island will put Moscow back on the map as an architectural hub, something it hasn’t been since the rise of Red Square.

Water Droplet Resort

Based on an innovative concept ‘Water Droplet resort’ is an architectural marvel that has been designed in the shape of water drop by Orlando De Urrutia. It is the first building of its type which converts air into water with the help of solar power. It sounds unbelievable or magic but is true! The concept to design the building is nothing but a combination of technology and nature.

 Inspired by the form of a drop of water falling from the heights, the building is projected and thought to create conscience of the water. Designed for construction in warm and humid coasts, the Water Building Resort, will house an aquarium, Restaurant, Gyms, Hotel, Spa services, Convention Halls and Conference rooms. Moreover, the bottom floor of this resort complex will have a water treatment zone for purifying rain water and salty sea water and a technological investigation center to control and verify water quality. The building also incorporates a technology research center (Cidemco) which controlled certification of quality industrial products.

The building design allows the integration of renewable energy uptake and energy optimization. The sun-facing facade is covered with photovoltaic crystals latest technology that allows transparency and

energy to capture the electricity of the building. The facade opposite the sun are shutters that allow air

to enter which is conducted through the water producing equipment. The air passing

 through the central courtyard is speeding up and out the upper wind turbine, generating electricity for all teams abasteceder.

 Water Building Resort, will be the first build in the world that transform the air into water, starting to obtain water from the air it seems to science fiction, however it is a reality thanks to new technology and modern TeexMicron incorporated in this building.

 Their production based on the condensation of the humidity that is in the air, its location in the water of the sea, add a big value regarding a bigger condensation. Allowing to take advantage of the night daily evaporation and condensation.

Moreover, Building Water Resort recycles water from rain and purging with marine desalination equipment incorporated in the base of the building. Water generators “TeexMicron” capable of producing 5,000 liters of water per volume of 21.17 m³ team, 48 people, for the calculations we use an average of 105 liters per person.