LEGO Architecture Burj Khalifa, Building Instructions, Page: 6 / 36

To support the unprecedented height of the building,
the engineers developed a new structural system called
the buttressed core, which consists of a hexagonal core
reinforced by three buttresses that form the ‘Y’ shape. Each
wing, with its own high performance concrete corridor walls
and perimeter columns, buttresses the other wings through
a connection to the six-sided central core, or hexagonal
hub. The result is a tower that is exteremly stiff laterally and
torsionally.
Each tier of the building sets back in a spiral stepping
pattern up the building. The setbacks are organized
with the tower’s grid, such that the building stepping is
accomplished by aligning columns above with walls below
to provide a smooth load path. This allows the construction
to proceed without the normal difficulties associated with
column transfers.
The setbacks are organized such that the tower’s width
changes at each setback. The advantage of the stepping
and shaping is to ‘confuse the wind’. The wind vortices are
never allowed to build up because at each new tier the wind
The structural system
© Emaar Properties PJSC Rebar construction © Emaar Properties PJSC
Burj Khalifa structural plan.pdf – © SOM
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