The Middle East has had many outlandish projects over the years. As part of our summer series, we will be looking back at some of the most colourful and extraordinary proposals and investigating what happened to them.
The first project, which made global headlines back in April 2015, was a proposal to build an underwater tennis stadium off the Dubai coast.
The plans were pitched by Polish architect Krzysztof Kotala, who has a Master of Science in Architecture from Kraków Polytechnic and owns the 8+8 Concept Studio in Warsaw.
He completed initial designs for the ambitious project, but admitted he had not made much progress in attracting investors or gaining official approvals from Dubai authorities.
“There is not an investor but I would like to get interest as I think it is a good idea,” he told Arabian Business in April 2015.
The design proposal involved seven arenas, with a carbon-glass glazed dome above the court and located in the seabed within a reef off the coast of Dubai, near the famous Burj al Arab hotel.
Kotala said he believed the idea had strong commercial potential and would combine the best of “technology, ecology and sport.”
Plans went quiet until Kotala told Arabian Business in January 2016 he was in talks with potential backers in the United States to make the project a reality and he was working on the final designs for the concept. “This process takes a few months,” he conceded.
Again, things went quiet. Arabian Business contacted Kotala in May this year and he said he had created a website and a Youtube video in order to help generate interest in the project but he admitted he still had “no money to build it” and may look to develop a smaller arena first. He said he was hoping to try and drum up funding in Cannes this summer to help finance his underwater dream.
