Posted on 11/18/2012 8:36:39 AM PST by Rebelbase
Some years ago, a British engineering firm Atkins proposed an extravagant design for a five-star hotel located deep within a 100-meter, abandoned and half flooded pit near the base of Tianmashan Mountain in the Songjiang District of Shanghai. Construction on the 19-story, 380-room Shimao Intercontinental Hotel finally is already underway. Initially the hotel was expected to be completed by May, 2009, but construction commenced only in March early this year.
The innovative design of the luxury resort hotel stands two levels higher than the rock face of the 100 meter deep quarry and includes underwater public areas and guestrooms. Instead of draining what water there is in the quarry, it will be flooded to become a sunken artificial lake. Two of the hotels floors housing guest rooms and a restaurant are to be situated underwater. An artificial waterfall will plunge down in front of the hotel's facade and into the quarry, at least, according to the concept images. Curved wings of the main body of the guestrooms enclose a naturally lit internal atrium, which uses the existing rock face with its waterfalls and green vegetation. There will also be sports facilities and a ten-meter deep aquarium. Among other things, the hotel will feature an extreme sports center for activities like rock climbing and bungee jumping will be cantilevered over the quarry.
Artists concept of the Songjiang Hotel
The entire hotel is to be covered in a green roof, while the building will use geothermal energy for its electrical supply and heating. The quarry will also provide a good source of heat control and shelter from the environment.
We drew our inspiration from the quarry setting itself, adopting the image of a green hill cascading down the natural rock face as a series of terraced landscaped hanging gardens. said Martin Jochman.
The Shanghai Shimao Property Group has so far invested US$555 million into the entire resort, and hotel rooms are expected to start at $320 per night. The hotel is scheduled to open in late 2014 to early 2015.
View of the pit where a five-star hotel will be built in Tianmashan, Songjiang, Shanghai, China, 13 March 2012.
Yes, I’d stay there. But not in that space saucer looking thingy on the right. Looks like too much trust put in a tooky little support beam to me...
Something like that.
Ya, What could go wrong with that concept?
S’ok...there are floaties in every night stand....
All that thanks to the fact that Americans,Europeans and Japanese wanted to pay $20 less for their DVD players.
Well,China's "Earthquake Central" for one thing.
Such a dream could never be realized in modern America, the former nation of dreams.
I’ve been advocating this kind of stuff with my friends in the mining business for over a decade: Shape the land to be interesting and beautiful. Hire a watercolor artist to arrange the piles of tailings by color. It wouldn’t cost that much and it makes the mine an asset when it’s done.
OTOH, maybe we could learn from them. If we tried free-market capitalism for twenty years, imagine what this country could do.
They could have made one heck of soccer stadium out that.
LOL, Good luck getting any wind for those sail boats:)
Do they have to shut that bridge down in high winds?
Very high winds will shut it down but mostly they use a variable speed limit according to wind speeds. The last time I crossed it wind speeds were about 25mph at ground level and the speed limit for trucks was 35mph. 300 feet above the surface winds are considerably stronger.
Hope they have a huge bilge pump in there somewhere.
Good design does not look like a theme park, as this does!
A world with too much time on its hands.
Time for a massive reset.
“All that thanks to the fact that Americans,Europeans and Japanese wanted to pay $20 less for their DVD players. “
Let me rephrase that: “All that thanks to the fact that Americans didn’t have the stomach to take on the unions, the tort system, excessive environmental regulations, and excessive workplace regulations, so they chose to shift production to China instead.”
I bet there are times when the wind gets screaming in that location.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.