The world’s tallest building is Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.

The world’s tallest building has been officially opened in Dubai, the Burj Khalifa, renamed after the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan.

The tower, previously known as Burj Dubai – was inaugurated earlier this week by Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, and at a height of 828 metres beats its nearest rival hands down – the 509 metre-high Taipei 101 in Taiwan.

It is the centrepiece of a substantial 2km squared development that officials hope will become a new central residential and commercial district, flanked by dozens of smaller but brand-new skyscrapers and the Middle East’s largest shopping mall.

Alongside luxury apartments and offices, the Burj will also be home to a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani.

The building was developed by Emaar Properties, is believed to have cost $1.5bn and taken about 12,000 labourers to build – around 22 million man hours.

In total 330,000m3 of concrete, 39,000t of reinforced steel, 103,000m2 of glass and 15,500m2 of embossed stainless steel was used in the structure, which has 169 floors, 57 lifts, and 1,044 apartments.

Much of the real estate was purchased three years ago, with some apartments selling for more than $1,900 per square foot, however, after such dramatic changes in the market, they are now more likely to go for half that.

As one of the seven members of the United Arab Emirates, Dubai has created an impressive number of innovative construction projects, namely the Burj Al Arab (or Arab Sail), the Emirates Towers, The Palm Island and The World.

However, it faces increasing global scrutiny for what some see as excess spending; suffering a real estate crash at the end of 2008 when the global financial crisis hit, the government had to bail out the Dubai World Group in November when it tried to delay debt repayments.

Yet Mohamed Alabbar, the Chairman of Emaar Properties, is positive that Dubai’s financial troubles are coming to an end: “The message is very simple…we build for tens of years to come.

“Crises come and go and the world has gone through two years of difficult times. I hope that this is the beginning of a gradual move forward.”

The building’s architect is Skidmore Owings & Merrill, contractor is a joint venture of Samsung, Arabtec and Besix, and consultant Hyder acted as the developer’s engineer.

For more information about the Burj Khalifa, click here.