Partner in charge of Structural and Civil Engineering for the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP — William Baker has developed the structural system for the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa, Dubai. The 2010 recipient of the Gold Medal from the Institution of Structural Engineers, Baker reveals the trials and successes in structuring Burj Khailfa.

Interviewed by : Surajkumar Nandakumar

SV. After working with SOM for a prolific span of two decades since 1981, how do you keep the creative juices flowing? What drives u to make new discoveries and innovate in the realm of architecture and structural engineering?

WB. Well SOM, Skidmore, Owings & Merill, is an architectural and an engineering firm. We have architectural engineers, structural engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, plumbing engineers, interior designers, planners etc, so its quiet a lot of fun to work together. When a new project comes into the office we get to see at the very beginning, the same time the architect sees the problems. And so we’re able to innovate and create.  And because we’ve worked together so many times we have a lot of ideas that are in place. Sometimes that idea is not right for this project but it’s still a good idea and you’re able to use it perhaps on another project. So we have a lot of ideas that are in place, waiting for the right opportunity.

SV. In a large scale project like the Burj Khalifa, how did you streamline the work processes of the various disciplines?

WB. The design itself was done in a span of few years. It started in 2001 and it kept on changing. We started construction in 2004 but were still doing some active changes as late as 2007. We didn’t have a huge team but a very focused one. We broke our team into two groups, one who is doing the low rise and one who is doing the tower. So we had a very tight team working on the project. We had approximately 75 different consultants involved in food services to lighting to elevator to wind tunnel. They were also involved at some point or the other during the process with the people we have in house.

SV. You literally raised the bar for tall structures with the Burj Khalifa. Could you elaborate the critical challenges you faced and the breakthroughs that enabled the successful completion of the project? And with this feather in your cap what lies ahead?

WB. Well the thing that was different about this project was the design process. It was more of an experimental design process. At one point you have an idea and you know that it’ll work and you go ahead with it and execute it. On this one we had some ideas that we refined over time and we did a lot of testing in the wind tunnel because the wind is the controlling primary in a tall building and so we would test and re-shape the building, again and again. So it was an experimental process. We didn’t know how high we could go because we had never done this before; no one had done this before. And so we reached a point, where this was as far as we could reasonably go, given the schedule and where the construction was. And so it was a different design process than most of the projects, just the reason why we have achieved this. Also the client kept on wanting us to go higher. From the very beginning it was a small building, but then the client added more area on my brief and that enabled us to go higher too cause the area was more. Now we can easily build a one km tower, probably faster than the Burj with the same amount of structural material. So we’ve learned a lot in the process, the project went very smooth, but there are some things we know now, that we didn’t know when we started.

SV. What were the technological and material innovations borne out of working on the Burj Khalifa?

WB. It was built like a vertical factory using very sophisticated form work system provided by Doko, whose from Austria in Europe. And they were ready to build at great heights; the concrete was pumped, except for the very top, from the ground up using very high strength piping and incredibly strong pumps to do so. These were things that had never been done before at a construction site. The contractor, too, was able to experiment, to see what construction methodology they could use at such great heights.

SV. To quote master architect B. V. Doshi — ‘Art and architecture are the first to be affected during a financial crisis and the last to recover.’

What do you think are the repercussions of the current world economic downturn on architectural practices?

WB. Well you may say in the boom that we had before the burst, all the architects have, what I might call, the irrational exuberance. There were a lot of fancy forms that were made just for the sake of making fancy forms. It didn’t necessarily add to the use of the building, they were just forms for forms sake. That will be tempered now. We saw this before, in the earlier recessions, at one time there is a lot of run-up where every one is trying to out-do each other, then the recession comes and architecture is a little more rational, a little more calm. The best part is that we are going to see for a while now people having the chance to stop designing and start thinking some more. And when we start up again things it will be more rational-based and less capricious.

SV. Did the recession affect the design and development of the Burj Khalifa?

WB. Not really, the Burj was well along. Of course, prior to the economic downtown everybody was affected but we were probably in a much better shape than many other developments. We were already pre-sold, especially all of residential. That was good. I think we were in better shape than almost anybody for this recession

SV. Where do you see India within the world infrastructure scene? Are you looking to broaden your work scope in this country? 

WB. India is in a very worththful place right now. It’s at a point where its going to grow. It’ll soon be the most populous country in the world and with highly educated workforce. Many people speak English here which is the language of business of the world. So there’s going to be a huge growth happening in India. And one of the wonderful things here is the option to learn from the successes and the things that weren’t so successful. You have such a great opportunity to learn and do it better. It’s also got a lot of challenges; it’s a very complex society and country. Its solution will be unique; it won’t be like elsewhere. We are currently involved with the new terminal in Mumbai, we are also doing some hotels in Mumbai, some hotels in Delhi and also in Agra, plus master plans in Delhi and other parts of India. We have a very strong connection to India. My boss for many years, who was the partner before I was, his name was Srinivasa ‘Hal’ Iyengar, he was from Mysore. Many people come to US for graduate studies and just stay back. Half of our staff, i.e. 40-50per cent people are born overseas and we benefit from it.