World Arab

The tower is designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill LLP (SOM). The building resembles the bundled tube form of the Sears Tower, but is not a tube structure. Emaar has also engaged GHD, an international multidisciplinary consulting firm, to assist with the design, review and assessment involved in the construction process. The design of Burj Dubai is ostensibly derived from the patterning systems embodied in Islamic architecture, with the triple-lobed footprint of the building based on an abstracted version of the desert flower hymenocallis native to the region. The tower is composed of three elements arranged around a central core. As the tower rises from the flat desert base, setbacks occur at each element in an upward spiralling pattern, decreasing the cross section of the tower as it reaches toward the sky. At the top, the central core emerges and is sculpted to form a finishing spire. A Y-shaped floor plan maximizes views of the Persian Gulf. Viewed from above or from the base, the form also evokes the onion domes of Islamic architecture. During the design process, engineers rotated the building 120 degrees from its original layout to reduce stress from prevailing winds. The tower, at its tallest point, sways a total of 3.35 metres (9.3ft).

The exterior cladding of Burj Dubai will consist of 142,000 m² (1,528,000 sq ft) of reflective glazing, and aluminium and textured stainless steel spandrel panels with vertical tubular fins. The cladding system is designed to withstand Dubai's extreme summer temperatures.

The interior will be decorated by Giorgio Armani. An Armani Hotel will occupy the lower 37 floors. Floors 45 through 108 will have 700 private apartments on 64 floors . An outdoor zero-entry swimming pool will be located on the 78th floor of the tower. Corporate offices and suites will fill most of the remaining floors, except for a 123rd floor lobby and 124th floor (about 440 m (1,444 ft)) indoor/outdoor observation deck. The spire - itself over 200 m (700 ft) tall - will hold communications equipment.

It will also feature the world's fastest elevator, rising and descending at 18 m/s (59 ft/s). The world's current fastest elevator (in the Taipei 101) travels at 16.83 m/s (55.2 ft/s). Engineers had considered installing the world's first triple-decker elevators, but the final design calls for double-deck elevators. A total of 56 elevators will be installed that can each carry 42 people at a time.

Outside, and at a cost of Dh 800 million (US $ 217 m), a record setting fountain system is to be designed by WET Design, the California based company responsible for the fountains at the Bellagio Hotel Lake in Las Vegas. Illuminated by 6,600 lights and 50 colored projectors, it will be 275 m (900 ft) long and will shoot water 150 m (490 ft) into the air, accompanied by a range of classical to contemporary Arabic and world music.