Earlier this month the still-incomplete Burj Dubai building in Dubai officially surpassed the height of all other buildings, towers and masts worldwide, making it the tallest man-made structure on the planet.

Currently standing at a staggering 688 m, construction of Burj Dubai is set to continue for another year, and the final height will not be announced until the building opens in September 2009.

As you can see, the Google Earth image was taken while the building was still just a toddler, but you can get an idea of how it might look with a 3D model.

Before the Burj Dubai came along the process for deciding on the world’s tallest building was strangely complex – there’s actually 4 possible categories to consider – and there were separate records for supported masts.

Burj Dubai simplified the debate by taking the top spot in all possible categories, but it gives us an opportunity to revisit all the previous record holders, many of which have been updated since we previously looked at tall buildings and the world’s tallest towers.

Taipei 101 in Taiwan once held the “tallest building” record in 3 of the 4 possible categories with its architectural height of 508 m, highest occupied floor of 438 m and roof height of 448 m.

For the moment at least, Taipei 101 retains the title of largest completed building, but after the completion of Burj Dubai it will have to settle for being the location of the world’s fastest ascending elevator, which can get you up to the 101st floor at a gut-wrenching 37.7 mph!

Chicago’s Sears Tower was once the holder of all tall building records. Taipei 101 failed to conquer its record of “height with antenna”, at 529 m, but Burj Dubai has easily cleared that without the need of extra-reaching aerials.

Lastly, the rope-supported KVLY-TV mast in Blanchard, North Dakota, was officially the tallest man-made structure on the planet at a height of 629 m. The fact that Burj Dubai already tops this height without any external supports is testament to just how amazing an engineering feat it really is.

Further reading at the Wikipedia pages for Burj Dubai, Taipei 101, Sears tower and KVLY-TV mast.

This incredibly shiny building is the Shwedagon Pagoda, also known as the “Golden Pagoda” (for obvious reasons) and it is the most frequented religious site in Burma (officially the Union of Myanmar), as Buddhists believe it contains relics of the past four Buddhas.

The original stupa (a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics) was built sometime around the 6th century, although Buddhists believe that it’s nearer 2500 years old.

It has certainly been rebuilt numerous times, and reached it current height of 98m sometime in the 15th century.

Also starting around that time, the entire surface of the pagoda was covered in real gold. The bling gets blingier too, with the top section featuring 5,448 diamonds, 2,317 rubies, and one massive 76 carat diamond!

The pagoda has had a long history as a political arena, most recently in September 2007 during nationwide demonstrations against the oppressive military regime. At least 5 people died during clashes between security forces and thousands of protesters led by the Buddhist monks.

Find out more at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Justin Lee and SFHandyman.

This is the huge Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, which used to be the winter residence of the Dalai Lama (the spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan people), until the current 14th Dalai Lama fled in 1959 following a Chinese invasion and the failed uprising that followed. The building contains the sacred gold stupas of the previous eight Dalai Lamas.

The 117 metre-tall palace is built at an altitude of 3,700 m, and measures 400 metres by 350 metres across. The thirteen storeys of building contain over 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines and about 200,000 statues. At the south base of the rock is a large space enclosed by walls and gates, where a series of shallow staircases leads to the summit of the rock.

Since the Chinese Government formalised their occupation in 1959, most of historical Tibet has been known as the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. To this day, human rights organisations around the world continue to accuse the Chinese government of persecuting and oppressing the local population, while the Chinese government maintains that Tibet has “ample autonomy”.

Today the Potala Palace has been converted into a museum, and the Dalai Lama resides in India, from where he is head of the Tibetan Government in Exile.

The Potala Palace Wikipedia page has more historical information, and there’s a wide range of excellent photographs available at Flickr. For more information on the occupation of Tibet, visit the Free Tibet website.

Thanks to Faine Greenwood, Krystal and Steve.

This is the brilliantly bizarre-looking National Aquatics Centre, which is better known as The Water Cube. The building is perhaps best described as resembling some sort of “bubble cake”, and when it’s lit up, it looks pretty incredible.

During the Beijing Olympics the centre will host the Swimming, Diving and Synchronised Swimming events, and is situated within Olympic Green, right next to the Bird’s Nest Stadium where the opening ceremony was held on Friday.¹

The design of the steel space-frame that makes up the building is actually based on a theory originally posited by great Victorian physicist Lord Kelvin. The idea was further developed in the 90s, and suggests that a combination of dodecahedra and tetrakaidecahedra (12 and 14-sided shapes respectively) can be used to divide space into cells of equal volume with the least surface area between them. In the case of the aquatic centre, thus maximising the amount of light entering the building, and helping to reduce the cost of heating the pool!

The frame is wrapped in a transparent form of Teflon called ETFE, and the building is the largest ETFE clad structure in the world – bigger even than the world’s largest greenhouse, the previously featured Eden Project. ETFE allows more light and heat penetration than traditional glass – apparently accounting for an equivalent 30% decrease in heating costs.

More about the National Aquatics Centre at Wikipedia, and an informative article about theoretical physics is available from The Guardian.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a very large rock, you’re probably aware that today sees the start of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Held in Beijing, China, the celebrations begin at precisely 8pm local time, 8/8/08. This is a date of extremely special significance in China, as the number 8 is considered to be very lucky.

10,500 athletes are expected to compete in 302 events across 28 sports, in a competition that has been beset with controversy since long before it was due to begin. Political issues aside, the Chinese government has invested heavily in new facilities and transportation systems – in total 37 venues will play host to events, including 12 newly constructed ones.

Google recently released up-to-date images of Beijing, so we’ll be able to see the finished structures, despite some having only been completed a few weeks ago!

Today we’re kicking off with the centrepiece location of today’s opening ceremony: the Beijing National Stadium. Completed in March this year, it’s nicknamed “The Bird’s Nest” because of its skeletal, nest-like structure, which was constructed using 36 km of steel sheeting.

The 330 m long, 220 m wide, and 69.2 m tall Bird’s Nest cost about 3.5 billion yuan, and during the course of the competition will seat up to 91,000 spectators, who will be here watching the main track and field events.

Originally the Guangdong Olympic Stadium was going to be the main venue for these Olympics, but it would appear that the Chinese wanted something much newer and shinier to show off to the world.

If you’re using Google Earth then you’ll be able view 3D models of the places we’re featuring during the Olympics by turning on the “3D Buildings” layer.

Read more about the Beijing National Stadium and the 2008 Summer Olympics at Wikipedia. Also, boston.com’s Big Picture blog published an absolutely stunning photoset of China’s preparations for the Games which you’d be foolish to miss!

Thanks to Dave and Christian Stüben.