The Palms Islands and the World Islands are the largest artificial islands in the world. Both developments are located in Dubai and are visible from space.
[Ed. Note: Here is my next post on Dubai: Teaching in Dubai.]
These two megastructures aren’t as grandiose as the megastructures in science-fiction, but they are being built in real life, which is even more impressive. I think of them as partial megastructures or megastructural, because at the end of the day, they are artificial islands. But then again, this is a first step into building real megastructures, so maybe they are the precursors to those structures in fiction. Technically, since they are visible from space, they are impressive.
What I find interesting is that these developments are built for the ultra rich. The World Islands retail at 15-45 million USD each. However, most have been bought by real estate developers to use in different ways, from ultra exclusive resorts I recently watched. There is one called OQYANA, trying to draw a parallel to Oceania, since it is located on the Australia and New Zealand World Islands. The name actually comes from the Arabic word for Oceanic (متعلق بالمحيط).
Richard Branson, Vijay Singh, Tommy Lee, Michael Schumacher, Rod Stewart and David Beckham have all been unofficially linked with purchases, but the main investors are all corporate.
In my mind, the World Island will always remain the giant floating world turtle in American Indian myths.
The Palm Islands in Dubai are the three largest artificial islands in the world. They are being constructed by Nakheel Properties, a property developer in the United Arab Emirates, who hired the Dutch dredging and marine contractor Van Oord, one of the world’s specialists in land reclamation. The islands are The Palm Jumeirah, The Palm Jebel Ali and The Palm Deira.
The islands were commissioned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in order to increase Dubai’s tourism. Each settlement will be in the shape of a palm tree, topped with a crescent, and will have a large number of residential, leisure and entertainment centers. The Palm Islands are located off the coast of The United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf and will add 520 km of beaches to the city of Dubai.
The first two islands will comprise approximately 100 million cubic meters of rock and sand. Palm Deira will be composed of approximately 1 billion cubic meters of rock and sand. All materials will be quarried in the UAE. Between the three islands there will be over 100 luxury hotels, exclusive residential beach side villas and apartments, marinas, water theme parks, restaurants, shopping malls, sports facilities and health spas.
The creation of The Palm Jumeirah began in June 2001. Shortly after, The Palm Jebel Ali was announced and reclamation work began. In 2004, The Palm Deira, which will be almost as large in size as Paris, was announced. Palm Jumeirah is currently open for development. Construction will be completed over the next 10-15 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment