The world's largest underwater hotel is being planned for Dubai, with rooms both on the seabed and on stilts above the surface (+ slideshow).
The Water Discus hotel has been designed by Polish company Deep Ocean Technology (DOT), whose other ventures include designing underwater vehicles and equipment for seabed exploration.
The hotel will be made up of two main discs, one above the water and one below the surface, connected by five columns and a vertical shaft for the stairs and lift. Smaller circular volumes above the surface will contain additional facilities, with a helicopter landing pad mounted on one.
The lower disc will comprise 21 hotel rooms with underwater views, an underwater diving centre and a bar. Each of the surrounding discs will be able to detach from the main upper disc to be used as a buoyant life raft in case of emergency or flooding.
The diving centre will be accessed through an underwater airlock, leading divers straight into the ocean. There'll also be a decompression chamber for training purposes, DOT explains, while guests will also be able to take a course in piloting an underwater vehicle.
The modular construction of the hotel will enable it to be expanded or even moved to a new location, according to DOT.
The Water Discus won't be the world's first underwater hotel – there is already one in the Maldives and another in Florida. However, it will be the world's largest and the first to be built in Dubai.
Other unusual hotels we've featured on Dezeen include an ice hotel in Lapland and a mobile hotel room that can be delivered to any location – see all hotels.
Two of the ten tallest skyscrapers set for completion in 2013 are located in Dubai – the 355-metre-high JW Marriott Marquis Hotel and the 328-metre-high Al Yaqoub Tower.
See all architecture in Dubai »
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Images are by Deep Ocean Technology.
"No Mr Bond… I expect you to die!"
They’ll need to do a hell of a job with the marine life to make it worthwhile looking under water. The coast off Dubai was not an interesting place to explore before the reclaimed islands messed with the tides.
So ugly!
Is it me or is the main reference in architecture today the Epcot Center?
Or Brad Bird’s The Incredibles ;)
Seeing something like this makes me sick! It is embarrassing that Dezeen supports something like this. I truly consider not following Dezeen any longer.
Cry baby!
The American Apparel advert to the left is far more interesting.
Don’t think the reef would look like that after a few years of construction.
Looks like Kamino from Star Wars, or maybe a secret base for the Thunderbirds. Was it designed by Jacque Fresco?
Ugh, Dubai. It’s like bad taste on steroids.
Yeah, but the world needs more novelty.
Hey, I’m all for novelty. Novelty can still be well designed and not look like something from a 1950s space pulp novel.
For example?
It's The Jetsons meets Star Trek – and not in a good way.
It’s the main saucer section of the Enterprise many times over. It even has a warp-core!
Dubai destroyed its reefs when it built those awful islands. The amount of marine life in those renderings is very ambitious.
Have they not seen Jaws 3?
Destroying a great beach with this pile of junk. Money can’t replace signification and human sense.
I absolutely think this is a genius idea. I’d love to be in on the blueprint, engineering, and architectural design, seeing the details on the mould-proofing, long-lasting, long-standing sciences behind the materials they will be using for this type of phenomenal build! Excellent!
I used to live in Dubai. You’re lucky if you ever see one fish off any of those beaches! The marine life has been totally destroyed by their dumping of raw sewage just off the beach, the massive dredging and the rubbish that floats around. That’ll be a nice view from your underwater hotel room.
It’s the usual pissing contest for Dubai; can’t offer anything else to the world except for the biggest and the tallest of ridiculous architecture built by slave labour and greedy people. Heard of Atlantis?
What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
The human race is finished. Let’s all pretend we can just keep growing, expanding and let the next generation carry the baton onwards and upwards, no limits! Humans are the “nanobots” that are turning everything into grey goo.
This is what you get when engineers and machinery designers try to design hotels.
An example of a much more engaging and exciting project involving water and designers is the Croatian Floating Pavilion from the 2010 Venice Biennale http://architectuul.com/architecture/croatian-flo…
Sounds good, so luxurious! This place looks great: interesting atmosphere and very entertaining. I have never seen an underwater hotel before.
I’m sorry but this is ridiculous. Waste of money and resources.