Abraj Al Bait
The Abraj Al Bait Towers (Arabic al - Bayt أبراج البيت Abrādsch ) are a high-rise building group with a central skyscrapers, the Mecca Royal Clock Tower Hotel in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. She stands next to the Sacred Mosque, which contains the Blessed Sacrament of the Muslims.
Architecture and description
After its completion at the end of the year 2012, a luxury hotel, the Fairmont Society was opened. The skyscraper was 601 meters and 120 floors after reaching the final height in July 2011, the second highest building in the world after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai significantly higher (828 meters). Meanwhile, the building is still the third highest in the world, after the Burj Khalifa and the 632 -meter Shanghai Tower. Architecturally cited the main tower of the clock tower of Big Ben and crowns himself with a long thick lace along with crescent figure at the top. The top of the building is partially accessible with an observation deck at 558 meters above sea level. It is higher than that of the previous record holder, the Shanghai World Financial Center ( 474 meters). Up to a height of about 400 meters, the building consists of a reinforced concrete structure, also was further built in composite steel construction and steel construction.
Initially the tower was to be 485 feet high, and later this was increased to 591 meters. In July 2010, which ultimately reached final height of 601 meters was announced.
The extremely compact building complex with over 1 million square meters of floor space was built to accommodate the many Muslim pilgrims who come to the mosque and the holy sites in Mecca; at full occupancy of the plant where over 30,000 people are housed. Because of this high effective area, the costs amount to an estimated 15 billion U.S. dollars. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai as the tallest building in the world has about cost for comparison 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, but also because of its much slimmer figure significantly less usable space, namely only about a third (about 517,000 square meters), although its number of floors with 163 is also substantially higher than that of the Mecca Royal Clock Tower Hotel.
The hotel tower is topped by the largest clock in the world. Affixed on all four sides of the tower clock faces have a diameter of 43 meters. You will be illuminated by 2 million LED lights and are visible within a radius of about eight kilometers. The dials are made of a glass mosaic with more than 90 million items, after which the coat of arms of Saudi Arabia is seen. The walk- minute hand made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic are 23 meters long, 3.5 meters wide and 7.5 tons. The hour hand is 17 feet long. The clock is equipped with a solar drive. Four golden domes are located on the pillars at the corners. More 21,000 white and green lights above the dials form the flag of Saudi Arabia. They blink five times a day to the Islamic prayer times.
The flexing Skyglobe deflection consists of two spheres having a diameter of six meters, which communicate with the open side at a distance of 1.8 meter from one another. You can make the Globe About a footbridge. The insides of the two hemispheres are each recorded over the entire surface and seamlessly from a total of twelve projectors with 7500 lumens. More than a camera software autocalibration caused by vibrations projection deviations can be removed by pressing a button. It is installed on an audio system with 2000 watts of power.
Owner of the complex is the Saudi Binladin Group. The architectural firm Dar al - Handasah Shair & Partners was responsible for the conception and design of the built in Arabic style complex. The clock and the spire of the main tower (from a height of 450 meters ) was designed and built by SL- Rasch GmbH under the direction of architect Mahmoud Bodo Rasch.
Construction work
The preparations for the construction of the towers began with a worldwide scandal: In the spring of 2002, dating from the late 18th century Ottoman Adschjad fortress was demolished and the largest part of the Bulbul hill on which it stood, leveled to the area for the Abraj Al Bait Towers vacate.
The groundbreaking for the complex took place in 2004. From 2006 began with the supernatural construction of the main tower. In summer 2010, the site had reached a height of around 450 meters.
In July and August 2010, the oversized clock was mounted on the turret. On August 10, this took the test mode. It is the largest clock that has ever been attached to a tower. The clock was built by Perrot in the Swabian town of Calw. For installation on site company CIMTAS from Istanbul was commissioned because Mecca Muslims only granted access. In addition Perrot commissioned a Moroccan engineer for the care and maintenance of the largest clock tower in the world.
The end of August the main tower reached a height of 508 meters and overtook the Taipei 101 in Taiwan. The final height of 601 meters was achieved on July 6, 2011 with the installation of the last component at the top. The half moon measures 23 meters in diameter and is walkable.
In December 2012, the last construction work was completed.