Floating a new concept of holiday homes in the UAE
Developer of project on The World islands says homes will have their own sewage tanks and standby generators
Janice Ponce de Leon
The Floating Seahorses or underwater villas to be built on The World islands have been certified as “safe and comfortable for users and for the environment”, developers and officials said.
The Emirates Classification Society or Tasneef, and the Kleindienst Group, developer of the underwater villas, recently signed a memorandum of understanding at the Ministry of Public Works detailing that Tasneef will provide classification standards, design assessment and surveillance during the construction of the floating villas to ensure the highest safety standards.
The Floating Seahorses are three-storey holiday homes in which the ground level is submerged, giving it an underwater view, docked in the marina of The Heart of Europe in The World islands project. The first Seahorse, which is being built in Dubai Maritime City, is expected to hit the waters this month.
Dr Abdullah Bin Mohammad Belhaif Al Nuaimi, Minister of Public Works and Chairman of the Federal Transport Authority – Land and Marine, who was present during the signing, lauded the project.
“It’s a very innovative thought ... With Tasneef, a firm that ... looks into the environmental, health and safety of the Gulf in specific, we feel it’s great that we have them engaged in such projects,” Al Nuaimi told Gulf News.
Codes in shipbuilding
Described as the first of their kind in the world, the villas are actually a cross between a villa and a boat. They float, and will be built according to the codes followed in shipbuilding.
“This villa ... we deem it to be a ship. Environmentally speaking, we took more than five months to study the safety and the environmental [impact] of these kinds of units [before proceeding],” Captain Waleed Al Nahdi, Chief Commercial Officer of Tasneef, told Gulf News.
Al Nahdi said the villas will have their own sewage tanks so no contaminated water can escape into the sea. It will also have its own water containers and water connection to the marina when docked. Energy source will come from a stand-by generator.
For added protection, the villas are moored in the marina and will not have their own engines to move around. To dock at another location, boats have to tug the villa and the authorities concerned have to clear the way before they are moved.
The villas will only be allowed in calm waters in the islands at a depth of 12 metres because the maximum wave limit they can take is just half a metre.
Captain Waleed Al Nahdi | Commercial Officer of Tasneef
Stabilisation system
To limit motion sickness for those who will stay in the villa, Josef Kleindienst said a stabilisation system is placed underneath to accommodate up to 25 people at one time and adjust whenever there is a shift in weight inside. The total weight of the villa — 210 tonnes — also gives it stability.
Kleindienst said the 25 square metre underwater glazing for the base level is made from acrylic to give a full view of the villa’s own coral garden spanning 46 square metres. The bottom level that is submerged in water is just like any ordinary basement so air pressure does not need to be regulated.
The corals on the first villa were saved from the Burj Al Arab perimeter during the hotel’s construction.
Kleindienst said their team of marine biologists is working to ensure that the corals could play host to clown fish. They are also breeding seahorses to be introduced in the coral garden once completed.