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One Za’abeel, a double-skyscraper that adorns Dubai's busy skyline, is set to take the title of the world's longest cantilever building. In layman's terms, a cantilever is a structure that sticks out horizontally beyond its vertical support, creating an overhanging section without the need for columns or supports, appearing as if it's defying gravity.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.One Za’abeel consists of two towers: a commercial tower measuring 300 meters (984 feet) tall with 68 stories and an adjacent residential tower measuring 235 meters (770 feet) tall with 59 stories.
Its defining feature is a 230-meter (754-foot) long structure linking the two towers, suspended horizontally at 100 meters (328 feet) above ground level.
According to the building’s website, the structure is “currently attempting to break the record for the Guinness World Records title for ‘Longest Cantilevered Building’ in the world.”
As per Guinness World Records, the tallest cantilevered building is New York's Central Park Tower, a 472-meter (1,550-foot) residential skyscraper with a cantilevered section that extends 8.5 meters (228 feet). While the total height of One Za’abeel is shorter, its cantilevered section is significantly longer, sticking out for a whopping 66 meters (216 feet).
Altogether, One Za'abeel contains 26,000 square meters (279,861 square feet) of "premium" office spaces, a SIRO hotel, dozens of serviced apartments, and 264 "ultra-luxurious" residential units. Homeowners and tenants started to move into the multi-purpose building in late 2023.
Along with connecting the two skyscrapers, the cantilever “sky bridge” contains eight luxury restaurants and the longest rooftop infinity pool in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Constructing the horizontal "link" was a bold feat of engineering. Groundbreaking of One Za’abeel took place in September 2017, while the towers started to be erected in 2019. The 8,500-tonne cantilever structure was lifted into place in September 2020 in one of the heaviest single lifts in the region and now weighs up to 23,000 tonnes.
“The lifting process was incredible. The initial lift on August 18 [2020] was a mere 10 centimeters [3.9 inches] to check for cable stretching and the building’s reaction to the strain... A further 1-meter [3.2-foot] lift took place a week later, followed by the main event, three days later – the final 100-meter [328 feet] lift into place,” said Dr Fadi Jabri, an executive officer for Nikken Sekkei, the Japanese studio that helped design the structure, according to Arab News.
