Dubai’s World of Islands is Sinking Into the Sea

[Kazimiera]

Dubai’s World of Islands is Sinking Into the Sea

Source: http://inhabitat.com/dubais-world-of...-into-the-sea/



Dubai's dubious building boom has spawned a new architecture of unparalleled excess - one needn't look further than the desert region's ski slope, refrigerated beach and proposed ice cube lodge to find proof. However as of late the emirate's blustery building pace has lost its muster, and the latest megaproject to go south is The World, an archipelago of manmade islands modeled after the seven continents that seems to have sprung a leak. We first covered the world-shaped chain of islands several years ago, and now the crumbling series of ill-fated isles is sinking like Atlantis into the sea.



According to Queen’s Counsel Richard Wilmot-Smith, speaking on behalf of Penguin Marine, “The islands are gradually falling back into the sea”. He went on to say that the World Islands show signs of “erosion and deterioration”. So far 70% of the world’s 300 islands have been sold, but all of the continents are uninhabited save for Greenland, which is owned by the ruler of Dubai.

Although the developer, Nakheel, claims that the project will eventually be completed and that it hasn’t observed any substantial signs of erosion, the project’s mounting costs and stalled construction may very well signify the end of The World as we know it.

For more pictures, visit: http://inhabitat.com/dubais-world-of...-into-the-sea/

[Tooting Carmen]

Dubai is the epitome of excess, vulgarity and anti-intellectualism.

[Piccolo]

Dubai is the epitome of excess, vulgarity and anti-intellectualism.

Agreed. Dubai is the moral armpit of the world. A modern Babylon if there ever was one.

[Obscene]

Such a waste of money...

[Jehan]

Maybe the island represent the futur of this country. It's a surprise because they already build some other island so why this time the island seek?

[SardiniaAtlantis]

[gültekin]

Dubai is the epitome of excess, vulgarity and anti-intellectualism.

LOL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Islands

The Palm Islands are artificial islands constructed from sand dredged from the bottom of the Persian Gulf by the Belgian company, Jan De Nul and the Dutch company, Van Oord. The sand is sprayed from dredging ships, guided by a Global Positioning System, onto the required area. The spraying process is known as rainbowing because of the rainbow-like arcs produced in the air when the sand is sprayed. The outer edge of each palm's encircling crescent is a large rock breakwater. The breakwater of the Palm Jumeirah contains over seven million tons of rock; each rock was placed individually by a crane, its position signed off by a diver, and given a Global Positioning System coordinate.[citation needed]

The Jan De Nul Group started working on the Palm Jebel Ali in 2001 and had finished by the end of 2006. The reclamation project for the Palm Jebel Ali includes the creation of a four-kilometer-long peninsula, protected by a 200-meter-wide, seventeen-kilometer long circular breakwater. There are 210,000,000 cubic meters of rock, sand and limestone that were reclaimed (partly originating from the Jebel Ali entrance channel dredging work). There are approximately 10,000,000 cubic meters of rocks in the Slope Protection Works.

[Tooting Carmen]

LOL

It's heavily dependent on foreign money, yes, but the point is that it attracts many projects that many businesspeople would rightly regard as unthinkable and bad taste back home.