You have got to live in Dubai to believe what's going on. In October at Cityscape - Dubai's largest real estate exhibition - Nakheel, the client behind the first of the Palm Islands and the world's tallest tower, announced plans for a building that will be a full 400m taller than the Burj Dubai, topping out at 1.2km. There is already talk of a 1.6km, or mile-high tower in Saudi Arabia. To many it seems crazily excessive. So why do it? Because it breaks boundaries. The Middle East has the resources to achieve extraordinary things and in Dubai the world's best consultants are being challenged to push and keep on pushing. Cityscape coincided with the slump in the global financial markets, wiping 12% off the value of the local real estate market. At worst that will see the wildest plans taken off the drawing board, but growth of the region's construction economy is set to remain stratospheric. A decade ago there were just 15 towers in Dubai. The city now has 250 with another 250 under construction.
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