What Is Hydropolis?
What Is Hydropolis? The Hydropolis Underwater Hotel and Resort is a proposed underwater hotel in Dubai, designed by Prof. Roland Dieterle in cooperation with the German Designer Joachim Hauser and with the approval of the DDIA.
Hydropolis should be the first multi-room underwater hotel in the world. It’s situated 66 feet below the surface of the Persian Gulf, just off Jumeira Beach in Dubai. Reinforced by concrete and steel, its Plexiglas walls and bubble-shaped dome ceilings will enable guests to see fish and other sea creatures.
It is basically divided into three sections: the land station, where guests will be welcomed; the connecting tunnel, which will transport people by train to the main area of the hotel; and the 220 suites within the submarine leisure complex.
It will cover an area of 260 hectares, about the size of London’s Hyde Park, and will cost an estimated £300 million. It is self-acclaimed to be a 10-star hotel and will be charging circa $5,000 per room per night.
The hotel was scheduled to open in late 2006, however due to the engineering and environmental difficulties of constructing an underwater hotel and the project is currently delayed and there is no sign of construction beginning anytime soon.
Architects working on Hydropolis have had some difficulty selecting a suitable position for the complex, concerns have been repeatedly raised about the displacement effect of building a 260 hectare underwater structure.
If their calculations are incorrect tides and sea levels off the coast of Dubai could be severely affected rendering vast tracts of coast uninhabitable due to chaotic tides, flooding, unpredictable wave patterns and a high possibility of whale and other sea-mammal beaching.
Disney Corporation is reportedly in talks with the developers of Hydropolis to bring a fully underwater production of The Little Mermaid to the hotel’s lobby. World-standard free divers are allegedly to play the lead roles and sophisticated animatronics are to be used for background non-speaking characters.
Dubai’s penchant for the exotic and grandiose is well known. Considering this Dubai seems the ideal location for the Hydropolis to realise its dream. This could turn out to be a major boost for Dubai tourism. The design and animated videos of Hydropolis are all over the web, but whether this will remain a dream or manifest itself, is not known.