As I mentioned Dubai in the last post I couldn’t go past putting this short video showing ‘the world’. A massive real estate project that has led to many more spectacular building projects.

Click here

to view the video.

Here is an extract from wikipedia;

The World is a man-made archipelago of 300 islands constructed in the shape of a world map and located 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) off the coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The World is one of several artificial island projects being constructed in Dubai, others being the Palm Islands. Like the other artificial island projects, The World is built primarily using sand dredged from the sea. It was developed by Nakheel Properties and was originally conceived by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai.
Each island in the archipelago ranges from about 14,000 m² (150,000 square feet) to 42,000 m² (450,000 square feet). The distance between each island will be an average of 100 metres (328 feet). The entire development covers an area of 9 km in length and 6 km in width, surrounded by an oval breakwater. Roughly 232 km (144 miles) of shoreline has been created. The overall development cost of The World was estimated as 14 billion USD. As for the individual islands, prices range between 15 and 50 million USD.[1][2] One island is still for sale at a price of 250 million USD.
The project was unveiled on 6 May 2003 by Sheikh Mohammed.[2] Dredging began four months later in September 2003.[2] By January 2008, 60% of the islands had been sold, 20 of which were bought in the first four months of 2007.[1][2] On 10 January 2008, the final stone on the breakwater was laid, completing initial development.[2] The next phase of the project is to hand over the individual islands to developers.

Whilst on the real estate theme, here is an apartment for you wealthy Baby Boomers out there. A new and imaginative skyscraper with floors that each rotate independently at different speeds was presented in project form on Tuesday in New York by architect David Fisher. The 420m Dynamic Tower in Dubai, will be the world’s first ‘moving’ building.

The 80 story building will be built around a central column and will have up to 79 wind turbines, each fitted between floors to power not only itself but generate electricity for surrounding buildings as well. Each floor of the tower would rotate independently – on voice command - allowing the building to constantly change shape, resulting in a unique and evolving architectural structure. It will take between one and three hours for an apartment to make a complete rotation.

Another great plus, well innovation is that the skyscraper itself could be built entirely from prefabricated parts resulting in cost savings. The approach - known as the Fisher Method - requires far fewer workers on the construction site, lowering costs.
Even so, these apartments won’t come cheap. They will range in size from 124 to 1200 square metres and cost between $US3.7 million and $US36 million. Construction is due for completion in 2010.