# Why Dubai's New Giant Faces a Race Against Time ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time.webp]] **Creator:** The B1M · **Published:** 2026-06-01 · **Length:** 16:44 · [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSy487RneZA) > Caption source: YouTube English (United Kingdom) manual captions via TubeAlfred (`youtube_video_transcript`, kind=manual, language=en-GB); yt-dlp hit HTTP 429 on the caption request. Extra figures (70 m foundations vs 50 m at Burj Khalifa; 725 m by 57 m, a 13:1 height-to-width ratio) come from The B1M's companion article, [The Race to Build the World's Second Tallest Building](https://theb1m.com/video/the-race-to-build-the-worlds-second-tallest-building). YouTube chapters used for section headings. Screenshots from the 720p stream (format 136). Host **Fred Mills**. Contains paid promotion for Rayon Design. Additional footage and images credited to Azizi Developments, Saudi Binladin Group, Meydan Group and CNN. ## Outline ### 0:00 Intro - **0:00** Burj Azizi will be nearly **200 m** taller than One World Trade Center, more than twice the height of the Shard, and **46 m** taller than Merdeka 118, which Fred has stood on top of. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0008.webp]] - **0:28** At **725 m** and due by **2028**, it should be the second-tallest building on the planet. Or will it? ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0025.webp]] - **0:37** Jeddah Tower, about 2,000 km away (1,700 km later in the video), is rising again with the same estimated **2028** completion. If it finishes, it becomes the world's tallest, Burj Khalifa drops to second, and Burj Azizi lands third. It's a race to the top. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0045.webp]] ### 1:12 Building modern Dubai - **1:11** Sheikh Zayed Road is the spine of Dubai and home to **Burj Khalifa**. Its wall of supertalls looks like New York or Hong Kong, and that's deliberate. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0075.webp]] - **1:28** New York, Hong Kong and Shenzhen are dense because they ran out of space. Dubai has plenty of land; its scarcity on Sheikh Zayed Road is intentional, a condensed vertical core built to give the city a global financial-district image. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0115.webp]] - **2:32** The road itself unlocked the transformation. Three things attract developers: **status**, **financial opportunity**, and **pro-supertall zoning**. "Pop all of those ingredients in a tin and bake at 180, and you get giants like the Burj Khalifa." - **2:58** Zoning was never a free-for-all. Plots were historically **leasehold**, typically **~99 years**, letting the government steer development, and land was held almost entirely by domestic investors, unlike Manhattan's global developer market. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0160.webp]] - **3:44** In **January 2025**, **128 plots** along Sheikh Zayed Road were opened to **freehold conversion**: for the first time investors own both building and plot. Foreign investment surged, with reports of rising demand and prices, and more room for giant towers. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0235.webp]] ### 4:27 The Burj Azizi - **4:25** The "unlikely underdog": **Azizi Developments**' tower, a giant slim glass shaft built to very tall, slim dimensions to make the most of a tight corridor plot. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0280.webp]] ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0300.webp]] - **5:08** Sponsor segment: Fred plans his own imaginary penthouse (bedroom, two bathrooms, a powder room) in **Rayon Design**, a browser CAD platform with industry-standard file import, 50,000+ premade CAD blocks and an AI vectorising feature. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0325.webp]] ### 6:40 Building a giant - **6:38** The headline amenity is a **seven-star hotel** (not an official grade, but a signal it's beyond five-star) themed on seven cultures: Arabic, Chinese, Persian, Indian, Turkish, French and Russian. "What, no space for the UK?" Each theme gets its own restaurant, plus a luxury ballroom and beach club. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0420.webp]] - **7:21** **20 floors** of serviced apartments with a cinema and supermarket, an ultra-luxury mall, and **1- to 5-bedroom** penthouses on top. - **7:43** Claimed world records: highest observation deck, hotel lobby, nightclub, restaurant, rock-climbing wall and hotel room, capped by probably the world's highest museum telling the building's own story. - **8:16** The site was once **Entisar Tower**, a **570 m** tower begun by **Meydan Group** in **2016**. Money problems led to a stop-work order; Azizi bought the land in **2018** and restarted work in **2025** with the goal of second-tallest. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0505.webp]] - **8:50** Entisar had only got as far as foundations, so Azizi had to design within what was built. That turned out to help: the article notes the existing pit was already excavated, piled, shored and dewatered to **70 m**, deeper than Burj Khalifa's **50 m**. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0540.webp]] - **9:07** Burj Khalifa had room for a wide, stable base. Burj Azizi is squeezed between two buildings beside a road, so it relies on very deep foundations instead, "like jamming a spade into wet sand." ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0565.webp]] - **9:35** Slenderness is the other challenge. It's among the slimmest buildings on Earth, close to New York's **432 Park Avenue** (Fred holds up a model), but **300 m** taller. The article gives **725 m by 57 m**, a **13:1** ratio. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0600.webp]] - **10:20** There will be **no tuned mass damper**: as with Burj Khalifa, a TMD is judged too heavy at this height. (Shown for contrast: 432 Park Avenue's damper.) ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0630.webp]] - **10:38** Wind 101: air hitting a tower goes **down** (a downdraught that speeds up the taller the face, blasting the street), **up** (meeting flow over the top in turbulent patterns), or **around** sharp corners (vortex shedding). All three cause shaking, sway and noise, not what buyers paying "an arm and a leg" want. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0665.webp]] - **11:42** Scale-model wind tests feed back into the shape to resist lateral forces. Pressure peaks mid-facade, so the tower uses **notched corners** and big stepped **setbacks** that break up the wind's momentum. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0760.webp]] - **12:30** High-performance glass and cladding cut desert heat gain; **thermal sensors** in the concrete track temperature. The core holds **44 elevators** and services, stiffened by an **outrigger** system tying it to the outer structure. - **12:56** On this "incredibly cosy" site, tower cranes use **anti-collision systems** to lift concrete and steel for the core. ### 11:34 Racing Jeddah Tower *(The chapter marker in the description reads 11:34, but the Jeddah segment starts around 13:08 in the captions.)* - **13:08** The real enemy is **time**. 1,700 km away, Jeddah Tower stood at **101 floors** as of **May 2026**. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0800.webp]] - **13:30** Started in **2013**, stalled by **2018** at about **250 m**, only a quarter done, then revived in **January 2025**. Just over a year later it's around **400 m**, already taller than anything in the UK, Canada, Australia or South America, and due in **2028** at more than **1 km**. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0840.webp]] ### 13:00 The Burj Azizi's legacy *(As above, the description's timestamp runs ahead of the captions; this section starts around 14:23.)* - **14:23** Burj Azizi's opening has reportedly slipped from **2028** to possibly **2029**. It might be the second-tallest building ever, or the tower that "strived for second and landed third", perhaps holding second place for only months, weeks or days. ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0900.webp]] - **15:15** Both towers have had setbacks; big projects are rarely linear. The Chrysler Building once dominated its skyline and is now less than half Burj Azizi's height. - **15:40** Fred's closing questions: will people in 100 years see this as a debate between dense, useful towers and status-symbol height for its own sake? Is this a nostalgic era of struggling to break **1 km**, or the moment the tallest buildings peaked? ![[images/Why-Dubais-New-Giant-Faces-a-Race-Against-Time-t0950.webp]] - **16:21** Sponsor wrap for Rayon Design and a subscribe call. ## Things mentioned ### Buildings and projects - Burj Azizi (725 m, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai; target 2028, possibly 2029) - Jeddah Tower (Saudi Arabia; 1 km+ target; 101 floors / ~400 m by May 2026; due 2028) - Burj Khalifa (current world's tallest; 50 m-deep foundations per article) - Entisar Tower (Meydan Group's cancelled 570 m tower on the same plot, 2016) - Merdeka 118 (Kuala Lumpur; Burj Azizi is 46 m taller) - One World Trade Center; The Shard; 432 Park Avenue (slenderness and damper comparisons) - Chrysler Building (century-old skyline comparison) ### Places - Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai ("the spine of Dubai") - New York / Manhattan; Hong Kong; Shenzhen (dense skyscraper cities) - Jeddah, Saudi Arabia ### Real estate and policy - Leasehold plots (~99-year terms) historically on Sheikh Zayed Road - January 2025 freehold conversion of 128 Sheikh Zayed Road plots; opening to foreign investors - Pro-supertall zoning; government influence at every stage ### Engineering and design - Deep foundations (70 m, inherited from Entisar Tower) instead of a wide base - 13:1 height-to-width ratio (725 m by 57 m) - No tuned mass damper (too heavy at this height) - Wind effects: downdraught, turbulence at the crown, vortex shedding - Scale-model wind-tunnel testing; notched corners; stepped setbacks - High-performance glass and cladding; thermal sensors in concrete - Core with 44 elevators; outrigger system; anti-collision tower cranes ### Amenities and claimed records - Seven-star hotel with seven cultural themes (Arabic, Chinese, Persian, Indian, Turkish, French, Russian), themed restaurants, ballroom, beach club - 20 floors of serviced apartments, cinema, supermarket, ultra-luxury mall, 1–5-bed penthouses - Claimed highest observation deck, hotel lobby, nightclub, restaurant, rock-climbing wall, hotel room and museum ### Organisations and sponsor - Azizi Developments; Meydan Group; Saudi Binladin Group; CNN (footage credits) - Rayon Design (paid promotion; CAD platform, 50,000+ CAD blocks, AI vectorising) - Fred's book *MEGA BUILDS*; Get Construction Talking; *The World's Best Construction Podcast* (description) ## Biographies ### Fred Mills Founder and on-camera host of **The B1M**. Presents from the studio with a model of 432 Park Avenue, explains Dubai's planning history and supertall wind engineering, says he has stood on top of Merdeka 118, and voices the Rayon Design sponsor segment. ### Azizi Developments Dubai-based property developer behind Burj Azizi. Bought the stalled Entisar Tower plot in 2018 and restarted work in 2025 with the stated aim of building the world's second-tallest tower. ### Meydan Group Dubai developer that began the 570 m Entisar Tower on the plot in 2016. The project stalled over money problems and a stop-work order was issued before the land was sold to Azizi. Credited for footage in the video. ### Saudi Binladin Group Saudi construction group credited for Jeddah Tower imagery. Jeddah Tower stalled in 2018 at about 250 m and resumed in January 2025.