rated 4.03 out of 5

ranked #3 out of 9 Dubai Mega-Projects

total 228 votes

Hydropolis

Hydropolis - the world’s first underwater hotel in Dubai - 27 acres and 220 luxury suites.

This Dubai mega-project is definitely extraordinary. The hotel is sitting on the Persian Gulf floor 66 feet below the surface. The hotel consists of three elements: the land station - shaped as a wave, the connecting tunnel - transparent and 1690 feet long and the underwater hotel in the shape of a jellyfish.

Guests enter Hydropolis from the beach. The land station isn’t only the entrance to the hotel, but offers also the hotel’s cinema, a cosmetic surgical clinic and a marine biological research institute. Then guests take the train through the transparent tunnel which connects the land with the underwater hotel.

Besides the hotel’s 220 luxury suites - some are bubble shaped with clear glass walls - Hydropolis has two translucent domes that break the water’s surface and have retractable roofs. Hydropolis has much to offer for its guests - it features a ballroom, a concert auditorium, a museum, a library, three restaurants, a shopping mall, a Roman-themed spa and a pool. It will even produce its own clouds to protect the guests from Dubai’s sun.

Construction technologies from submarines and oil platforms were used for the underwater construction of Hydropolis. Custom-built Plexiglas was produced for Hydropolis’ walls to withstand water pressure which is three times higher than pressure at the surface. Private investors took the sponsorship for the estimated costs of $550-million. Future guests will have to pay $6000 per night for this extravagant underwater experience. Hydropolis is scheduled to open at the end of 2007.

Hydropolis was designed by the German architect Joachim Hauser who was inspired by Jules Verne’s famous novel 20,000 Leagues under the sea. Hauser thinks that the future of city planning lies in the sea and that humans could actually live self-sufficiently underwater.