Polish hotel at the bottom of the sea

Water Discus

Polish engineers are working on the world’s first underwater hotel. The prototype will be located in Gdynia.

Do you want to see coral reefs through your window and go to sleep lulled by the sight of a fish shoal? In a few years’ from now, tourists with lots of cash to spare will have a chance to try out this invention off the coast of Dubai, the Maldives or French Polynesia. A Polish company from Gdynia, Deep Ocean Technology, has designed the first underwater hotel, dubbed the Water Discus.

Researchers, among others from the Gdańsk University of Technology, first came up with the idea to build an underwater tourist attraction in 2010. “Inventors inspired by dreams wanted to create something new and fresh, and this Water Discus is precisely this kind of project,” says Marta Pomykała from Deep Ocean Technology. Underwater restaurants and other premises already exist, but until now no one has built an entire underwater complex.

Water Discus is a self-sufficient facility covering an area of approximately 1,000 square meters and weighing approximately 3,000 tonnes. The basic version of the hotel will consist of two discs: one on the surface and one underwater, to be connected by a separate passageway. The surface part will contain restaurants, a spa and a swimming pool with sea water serving as ballast. The underwater part – located 10 meters below sea level – will contain 21 hotel rooms, a bar, and diving equipment. Additional modules with conference facilities, entertainment premises or a helipad can then be added to the surface part.

The hotel is a dream destination for people who want to explore the deep blue sea. Hotel customers will have jet skis, motorboats, diving apparatus and bathyscaphes at their disposal. Hotel guests will also be able to use remote-controlled vehicles to explore the underwater world without leaving their rooms.

The construction of the hotel will ensure safety and security to its residents, even in the event of natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis. Modules will maintain buoyancy even if they are completely flooded. The underwater part is held down to the seabed only by the weight of the water from the pool – when the water is drained, the discus will automatically resurface.

The complex can be expanded by adding different modules. “Each design is custom-made to fit local conditions and client demands. It does not necessarily have to be a hotel. The Water Discus can be built as a library or a private residence,” adds Marta Pomykała.

The company was able to raise funds for a prototype, due to be constructed in mid-2013. The project’s total cost is PLN 35 million, PLN 19 million of which will be financed by the European Union. The prototype will be situated at Gdynia’s Skwer Kościuszki – the most elegant promenade on the Baltic Sea coast. The solutions tested there will later be used in the final product. The Polish company is engaged in talks with investors from different parts of the world to build the first commercial facility. If everything goes well, the underwater discs will begin to be installed as early as in 2014.