Eric Demay

I’m working on a design project in the new Burj Dubai, what is now the tallest tower in the world. It elevates to over 800m, well looking down on Tapei 101 (the previous contenter at 508m) and every other skyscraper in the world. The tower (Burj is tower in arabic) is the central piece of a new development which also regroups a slew of residential towers, hotels, business and commercial spaces. To get to work every morning, I’m walking through what is the largest mall in the world.

Access to the construction site is obviously limited and for security and safety reasons, they do their best to keep a tight control on who is coming in and out. And so, to get your access badge, you must pass the infamous safety induction. Pum pum puuum.

After much paperwork (by the way, Indians—to which the English have colonially bestowed their their oh-so-popular bureaucracy system—are running the show), you sit through a two hours class with other staff and workers of all kinds while regulations and safety procedures are being recited, both in English and either Punjabi or Hindi (I couldn’t make it out).

I loved the cardboard models and props they had made for different subjects. We learned where to gather at assembly points throughout the tower, how to extinguish a fire and ask for a permit to use a working platform. Thril-ling. Though I’m arriving on the scene quite late in the project (the tower is opening in a matter of months), this “show” has been running since the beginning of the construction in 2004.