Dubai Water Discus hotel will allow guests to sleep underwater
The Water Discus underwater hotel, scheduled for construction in Dubai
It seems the construction boom in bustling Dubai is far from over –
already home to several world record-holding projects, including the
tallest building (for just a little while longer), the largest shopping
mall and biggest man-made island,
plans are now afoot to construct what will likely be the world's
largest underwater luxury hotel, the Water Discus. Several years ago, we
reported on another such ambitious project, Hydropolis,
which sadly never got past the blueprint stage. If Polish company Deep
Ocean Technology's (DOT) plans come to fruition, however, guests could
one day find themselves asleep beneath the waters of the Persian Gulf.
To bring this fantasy complex into being, DOT, with the help of Swiss firm BIG InvestConsult AG, turned to local shipyard Drydocks World,
which will be tasked with constructing the futuristic disc-shaped
hotel. The underwater portion, with about 11,000 square feet (1,000
square meters) of usable area, will house 21 two-guest rooms, and sit
about 33 feet (10 m) below the waves. Plans also call for a diving
center complete with decompression chamber and air locks, a spa, a
spacious garden, open terraces above the waterline, and even a helipad
atop one of the surface discs for guests who wish to arrive by air.
To address the unpredictability that often comes with projects
involving the sea, the entire structure can be moved should
environmental (or economic) conditions change. For added safety, surface
discs will be buoyant and detachable from the main structure to act as
lifeboats should disaster strike. A large central shaft connects the
submerged and surface discs and contains both an elevator and stairs for
easy access between levels. Three adjustable columns add further
support to the above-surface portion of the structure, the various discs
of which are themselves interchangeable.
Bogdan Gutkowski, President of BIG, imagines the project will have an
impact on numerous areas besides the region's tourism. “Water Discus
Hotel project opens many new fields of development for the hotel and
tourism sector, housing and city sector in the coastal off-shore areas,
as well as new opportunities for ecology support by creation of new
underwater ecosystems and activities on underwater world protection," he
told World Architecture News. "Additionally we would like to create
here in the UAE the International Environmental Program and Center of
the Underwater World Protection – with Water Discus Hotel as a
laboratory tool for oceans and seas environment protection and
research.”
Grand plans, indeed.
While the idea of staying underwater
is far from new, technology has greatly improved to meet the formidable
challenges of sub-marine construction, so the likelihood of this and
similar projects actually getting built is sure to increase. Famed
explorer Jacques Cousteau once envisioned numerous manned underwater
colonies to facilitate exploration and though that didn't come to pass,
for fans of underwater living, projects like the Water Discus may prove
to be the next best thing.
Source: Deep Ocean Technology via WAN
