News: Dubai unveiling an underwater hotel

Calling it utopian or not, Dubai announced to plan a build underwater hotel, as Simeon Kerr and Sarah Gordon, report for The Financial Times and The Daily Mail, respectively.

© Deep Ocean Technology
A Villain's lair: The James Bond-style construction will be built out at sea.
Originally appeared on The Daily Mail.

As Kerr notes, "with the economy rebounding, the emirate is planning (…) big projets". Grandiose is the word for this project.
Real Estate BIG InvestConsult of Switzerland, Kerr says, will be in charge to build this "Water Discus hotel" for Drydocks World.
According to Kerr:

Including submerged and above-the-surface spherical structures, the deluxe hotel would offer rooms with views of surrounding aquatic life.

Another journalist Sarah Gordon, from The Daily Mail, gives details on this prodigious project:

The "Water Discus Hotel" - a spaceship-shaped building perched in the water and looking not unlike a James Bond villain's lair - is set to be the first of several planned across the region.

Deep Ocean Technology will be in charge with the design of this hotel. Gordon continues:

The hotel will be made up of two main discus, one above water one and below, they will be connected by three 'legs' which contain lifts and stairways to plunge guests from the sunshine above down beneath the surface of the sea. (…) The top disc - which is built high enough to withstand a tsunami and any flooding, while the underwater disc automatically surfaces at once in the event of any danger.

© Deep Ocean Technology
All at sea: Guests will be able to sleep underwater, but still enjoy the sunshine in the disc perched above the surface.
Originally appeared on The Daily Mail.

This is not the first surprising project: in 2009 a similar project was cancelled. Simeon Kerr writes:

© Deep Ocean Technology
Room with a view: Special lighting will allow guests to enjoy the flora and fauna outside their window and macro
photography will help them zoom in on even the tiniest creature.
Originally appeared on The Daily Mail.

Before the financial crisis that hit Dubai (…), there were plans to build an underwater hotel, known as Hydropolis.

As Todd Reisz, the editor at Al Manakh and regular contributor of Archis Volume, pointed out:
This certainly not the first time that technological salesman has come to Dubai and, if this project fades away, it wouldn't  be the first time either.

© Deep Ocean Technology
High and dry: The top disc will boast a restaurant, spa and enormous swimming pool.
Originally appeared on The Daily Mail.

But Drydocks's ambition is by far conventional for Dubai, apparently. Other projects such as the Palm Jumeirah, and the World project are among many similar projects, be they utopian — in a western eye — or classical — for this region.

© Deep Ocean Technology
Tropical paradise: The hotel, which will have 21 rooms, is set to be the first of several built across the region.
Originally appeared on The Daily Mail.

Source: Financial Times and The Daily Mail.