Dubai One Tower: Reaching for the skies

Already one of the world's top lifestyle, business and shopping destinations, Dubai has several firsts to its credits. It is home to the iconic Burj Khalifa, which at 828 metres is the world's highest tower and the sprawling Dubai Mall, the world's largest shopping mall based on total area and fourteenth largest by gross leasable area.

Not quite content with these imposing structures that attract millions of awestruck visitors from around the world each year, Dubai is now gearing up to host the Dubai One Tower, its newest towering edifice and also the tallest residential tower on the face of the earth.

Rising high over the city at a gravity-defying 711 metres (2,333ft), the Dubai One Tower is more than twice the height of the famous Shard (306 m) in London and will be built as part of a £4.3billion complex called Meydan One.

The complex is slated to include approx 885 apartments with easy access to the world's highest observation deck at a height of 665 metres, a dancing fountain, a shopping centre, 350-room hotel and a marina and will also include the world's largest indoor ski resort, much to the delight of its 78,000 residents.

Dubai's only other existing indoor ski resort which opened in 2005 in the Mall of Emirates and runs the year round despite the scorching desert heat outside is currently listed in the website of Guinness World Records as the largest in the world with its imposing 400 m slope. But not for much longer since the new one within the Dubai One complex will have a 1.2 km run.

According to informed sources, the massive project is scheduled to be completed over the next five years, just in time for the World Expo 2020, which is being hosted by Dubai this time round.
 
With its reputation as a liberal, cosmopolitan hub in an Islamic environment, Dubai has become a leading global business and financial nerve-centre in the region among corporate and skilled professionals. The city has also emerged as one of the world's leading tourist destinations attracted 13.2 mn visitors in 2014 and is aiming to touch 20 mn tourists by 2020.

The 25 bn dirham-project will extend from the Meydan race track in the emirate's desert to Burj Khalifa, the world's highest tower. Planned as an ultra-luxury residential abode second to one, the project boasts of some stellar attractions that include: a dancing fountain sweeping up to 420 metres (1,378ft), a vast shopping centre, a 25,000 sq/m indoor sports centre, 300m beach, a 350-room hotel and a marina.

The shopping section of the complex will boast of around 300 restaurants and delightful cafes' located under a massive retractable roof, which can be opened when the temperatures cool.

Interestingly, the under-construction Dubai One tower faces some competition from the under-construction World One tower at Upper Worli in central Mumbai, the erstwhile contender for the title of the ‘world's tallest residential tower'.

The US$310 mn project conceived by the city-based Lodha group features apartments priced from US$ 1.2 mn with the most expensive carrying a price tag of approx US$ 7.8 mn.

As of June this year, construction of World One Tower had reached the 95th floor, or approximately 417 meters (1368ft). The project is slated to touch a height of approx 442 metres (1,450 ft) on completion sometime next year.