ABU DHABI // The world's largest structure made out of aluminium cans - a replica of Maqta Fort - now stands on the beach in Taweela.
A team of 38 engineers from Emirates Aluminium (Emal) designed, planned and built the fort, while the company also manufactured the 46,556 cans used in the record-breaking venture.
The previous record was set in September, when a team in Japan created a structure made from 35,679 cans.
The Emal team were already working on their design when this feat was achieved, and it prompted them to alter their plans to ensure they could beat the record. The entire project took five months to complete.
Essa Al Falasi, 26, a senior project engineer at Emal, was on the team.
"When Japan announced they had broken the record, we were really shocked. We needed to make some changes. We had to use as many cans as we could," he said.
Rather than building high, the 46,556-can structure is just 5.67 metres tall so it can withstand high winds.
With 1,919 man hours put into the project since Monday, the last thing the team wanted was for the fort to collapse. Cans were glued together to make the structure rounded. "This round shape was really a challenge," Mr Al Falasi said.
Tarika Vara, the adjudicator from Guinness World Records, said the structure surpassed her expectations.
"It's a very high standard," she said. "The maths and engineering have really been put into this."
Ms Vara said the record was made more impressive by the need to step up the challenge after the announcement in September.
"That competitive nature people have means they'll try and hold the record for as long as possible," she added.
