Partially-Undersea Water Discus Hotel To Be Built In the Maldives 89
Zothecula writes "Polish architectural and deep-sea engineering company Deep Ocean Technology has inked a deal with Ridgewood Hotels and Suites Pvt. Ltd. to build its futuristic part-underwater Water Discus Hotel just off the shore of Kuredhivaru Island in the Maldives. 'The luminous hotel features two large disc-shaped lounges seven-meters above the water, housing a luxury restaurant and spa. The lounges are connected to a glass tunnel plunging 30-meters below the water, leading to 21 opulent bedrooms. Not only does the hotel look like a spaceship -- it actually moves like one, with the largest underwater saucer-shaped room able to slide to the surface in emergencies. 'If you need to replace a window for example, it's very difficult underwater,' explained Podwojewski. 'So we wanted to build a building that can surface any time for maintenance or safety.'"
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Jetsons! (Score:3, Funny)
That is some straight up Jetsons shit right there...
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How dare anyone prioritize the ecosystem that sustains life on earth over corporate profit margins. Fucking communists.
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Obviously governments and corporations are always evil.
FTFY
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Who, or what, isn't evil?
Ecosystems that sustain life aren't evil, so it makes sense to prioritize them.
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I give you permission to downmod me: -1: The Truth Hurts
Oh, ow, you're right, I had no idea what you said was true, and hearing it hurts me now.
Wait, no, it's the exact fucking opposite of that. Seriously, environmental impact studies are a bad thing? Go back to your corporate master and beg to be put out of your misery, you're obviously no good at pushing your master's agenda.
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Spoken by someone who lives in a house that was already built, on land that had to be cleared, in a natural ecosystem that had to be destroyed, and protected by systems that kill nature's attempts to recolonize.
Your hurt shows through remarkably.
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You could travel to Europe, for example in Germany there are many hotels that are partially submerged right now.
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"Hurt" implies I am offended in some way by the original post. I am not. I am confused why Impy the Impiuos Imp thinks that pointing out the obvious would be an "inconvenient truth", but I'm certainly not hurt by it.
I am, however, curious why you think I am hurt by OP's post.
When you say things like:
Go back to your corporate master and beg to be put out of your misery,
it shows he touched something unpleasant in your being. Yes you were hurt.
But how about the rest of my post? You have your dwelling, the other businesses you patronize already have their buildings, so you don't want any one else to build something. Why? Because wildlife may be impacted? Maybe the fact that people can see the beauty of the wildlife will cause them to do more to preserve it. There's historical precedence for that influence on people, after all.
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it shows he touched something unpleasant in your being. Yes you were hurt.
Either that, or he's simply laughing at the OP's absurdity.
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While I have done that a couple times, I would rather mod up people who make good arguments, even when I don't agree with them. I just had mod points yesterday (Monday really, but I was exhausted from an install), and modded down one guy who was just a dope, modded up three who I don't agree with, and one who I did agree with. I didn't plan it that way, but those three made good points and hadn't been modded up yet. Most of the great posts I did agree with had already been modded up to at least 3, and they
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Look up and see the surface of what once was, as we sink ever further into irrelevancy.
Sinking into irrelevancy is arguably better than sinking into the ocean. [wikipedia.org]
Re:Jetsons!.... Nope, Bioshock... (Score:3)
That is some straight up Jetsons shit right there...
This looks more like the first step towards the underwater city of Rapture....
Okay (Score:3)
There's got to be a morning after
If we can hold on through the night
We have a chance to find the sunshine
Let's keep on lookin' for the light
Oh, can't you see the morning after
It's waiting right outside the storm
Why don't we cross the bridge together
And find a place that's safe and warm
It's not too late, we should be giving
Only with love can we climb
It's not too late, not while we're living
Let's put our hands out in time
There's got to be a morning after
We're moving closer to the shore
I know we'll be there by tomorrow
And we'll escape the darkness
We won't be searchin' any more
There's got to be a morning after
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Offtopic? Boy oh boy, there sure are some youngins here.
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+1 Poseidon Adventure...
Great cast....
* Ernest Borgnine
* Gene Hackman
* Roddy McDowall
* Red Buttons
and a cast of Thousands!!!!
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Every bit of scenery was consumed.
But the real lasting legacy of The Poseidon Adventure was the rash of bad clones it produced, including dozens of made-for-TV disaster movies that used stock footage and Darren McGavin. Ah, the '70s...good drugs and bad hair. A veritable golden age of awful.
and in tsunamis? (Score:4, Interesting)
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According to some [tripadvisor.com] (especially one near the bottom), tsunamis are very rare, but there is no place on any of the Maldives high enough to get away from one. So I suppose this would be no more dangerous than any other hotel in the region.
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I wonder how the whole thing will be able to move if there's a tsunami?
A tsunami big enough to cause much damage is unlikely to be generated locally, so there would probably be an hour or more of warning. The biggest danger would be a tsunami generated by the fault-line of the "ring of fire" passing through Indonesia. That means it would most likely come from the east, so an obvious defense is to build the hotel on the western side of the island. The article doesn't say, and Google maps doesn't show an island named Kuredhivaru, so I don't know if that is what they are doin
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Based off images from here:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=258146087538513 [facebook.com]
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=258146094205179 [facebook.com]
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I wonder how the whole thing will be able to move if there's a tsunami?
A tsunami big enough to cause much damage is unlikely to be generated locally, so there would probably be an hour or more of warning.
What would you do with your hour or more of Tsunami warning? The maximum natural elevation of the Maldives is about 8 feet above sea level. Apparently the elevation has been raised artificially in some areas, but I doubt it would be all that safe. I guess you could try to race out to sea (risky) or if you are a very lucky or rich person you could get in a plane and fly around until it passes. If the Tsunami is really bad you might not have a place to land, depending on the size of the plane.
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Here's an interesting write up [bom.gov.au] about how tsunamis work.
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Just because I like working on the worse case scenarios. So, I think it would kind of depend on the evacuation plan / structural integrity of the ship / hotel.
It’s basically a very top heavy boat. So a 3 meter wave would not pick it up and throw it around but it might be enough to tip it. (which still may be safer than being on-shore)
Or maybe just enough stress to pop out some of the windows in the 21 underwater bedrooms.The structure would survive but how fast can you evacuate the people from below?
Re:and in tsunamis? (Score:4, Informative)
I don't think the Indonesia tsunami did any damage to those islands. The US military has a base, Diego Garcia, on the British islands a couple hundred miles to the south, and they saw no effect at all. Because tsunamis don't cross the ocean as a giant tumbling wave*. Those only build as they get to shallow water. And the islands are too abrupt to have a large shallows, so the ocean swells a few inches for a few minutes, then it's back to normal as the tsunami passes by.
*This is why it is no more correct to call these events a 'tsunami' than a 'tidal wave' like we did when I was a kid. The term 'tsu nami' actually means 'harbor wave', which is then meaningless out in the middle of the ocean. Generally, a tsunami is only destructive when it gets to shallows in front of land, and it doesn't matter if there is a harbor or not. So we should stop using the term, and find something more scientifically accurate.
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'Rulfa' sounds good, but I'm not sure on the scientific accuracy of 'naw wriaf'. At first, only the front of the wave that is in the shallows slows, which is when the body and rear of the wave piles into it. Each part that gets to the shallows slows, but 'the wave' itself isn't slowing. And whether the wave slows or not, why would the frequency change? Two waves that are five minutes apart in the ocean, traveling the same speed, will hit land five minutes apart as well.
But with that being said, it is still
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only the front of the wave that is in the shallows slows, which is when the body and rear of the wave piles into it. Each part that gets to the shallows slows, but 'the wave' itself isn't slowing
True. I was imprecise in my language; I meant the foremost period of the wave.
Two waves that are five minutes apart in the ocean, traveling the same speed, will hit land five minutes apart as well.
False. The speed of the wave is determined by the depth of the water relative to the amplitude of the peak. As the wave approaches a shoreline, the first period will shorten and therefore the wave peaks will hit, probably dramatically, less than 5 minutes apart.
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Ok, then I think we are on to something. If scientists can tell us Pluto is now a dwarf planet, they should be able to accept that tidal waves/tsunamis are now rulfas and naw wriafs.
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I wonder how the whole thing will be able to move if there's a tsunami?
"During the last earthquake, Bob's zipcode changed six times"
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Sounds cool, but I wouldn't travel to the maldives, especially with their rise in religious fascism including attacks on tourists who "don't conform to the rise of islamo-fascism.'
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Re:Search your feelings you know it to be true (Score:5, Funny)
Great place indeed, until the father shows up. He's always been kind of a dark figure.
Well that certainly is... (Score:3)
If you get the cheapest one, they may get you a room with no view, no windows and underwater.
Don't complain (Score:1)
My ultracheap rate only afforded me a room with windows... that could not be closed.
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But you get to brag how much you paid each night for it. After all it is not about function it is all about posing like a douche. How much crap out there should simply be rated on douche value, rather than how many miles per hour it will go, how gallons of fuel per hour it will burn, how big it is to substitute for how small those that buy it are. Consume and pollute ratings for poseur value are really getting kind of sick and off putting.
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The first part of Rapture [wikipedia.org] perhaps?
That hotel looks like the lair for a Bond villain. (Score:3)
n/t
Looks like (Score:2)
Cloud City. Floating on the water instead of the air.
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That's exactly what I wanted to say. :-) I had a simple building technique to propose:
1) Build a normal hotel.
2) Wait thirty years.
3) Prophet! (*)
.
(*) Maldives are essentially Islamic.
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Fignuts!
Shouldn't the hotel be called Rapture? (Score:2)
Another one? (Score:3)
Underwater hotels have been proposed many times, but no significant ones have actually been built. The Poseidon Underwater Resorts [poseidonresorts.com] has a web site that looks real, but it's total vaporware. Atlantis Palm Hotel [atlantisthepalm.com] in Dubai was going to build one to go with their water park, but it didn't get built either.
But there are some really good renderings [feedbox.info].
Preparing for the future (Score:2)
Since with global warming and the rise of sea levels all of the Maldives will be underwater soon, I suppose this is a good idea to prepare for the future.
Above? (Score:1)
Link text says above water. I'm guessing it should read below
Stromberg's base from The Spy who Loved Me (Score:2)
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/gallery/2008/11/03/water1.jpg [guim.co.uk]
Where's Andrew Ryan? (Score:2)
Wrong way around (Score:3)
This proposed hotel is the wrong way around. Instead of a restaurant above the water and bedrooms below, it would be much more sensible to have the restaurant and leisure facilities under water (where you can really appreciate the undersea views whilst you're awake) and the bedrooms above (so if the thing springs a leak in the middle of the night you don't all drown).
Necessity due to rising sea levels? (Score:2)
Isn't the Maldives one of the places that are going to disappear due to rising sea levels? Probably need to build the hotel tough enough to take wave action from the open seas when there's no longer any land above sea level left there.
Sunlight (Score:2)
Brilliant, now all they have to do is make the whole structure transparent so it doesn't block out the sun underneath the hotel and starve the coral of energy.
There is a reason coral only grows in shallow water.
Re: Sunlight (Score:1)
It's been done (Score:2)
Plastic Beach
planning ahead (Score:2)
Existing underwater palace: Jal Mahal in India (Score:2)
There is a breathtaking "underwater palance" in india called the Jal Mahal. A few floors of it are underwater during the wet season. When I went there it was not open for tours although Wikipedia indicates that it now is open.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jal_Mahal [wikipedia.org]