When we were in Mexico last week, I distinctly remember saying to myself that having hot sand between my toes was a serious problem. And if I was rich enough, why should I have to waste time putting on flip-flops or sandals just to walk about — why not not just cool the entire beach instead?
The London Times Online reports:
Versace, the renowned fashion house, is to create the world’s first refrigerated beach so that hotel guests can walk comfortably across the sand on scorching days. The beach will be next to the the new Palazzo Versace hotel which is being built in Dubai where summer temperatures average 40C and can reach 50C. The beach will have a network of pipes beneath the sand containing a coolant that will absorb heat from the surface. The swimming pool will be refrigerated and there are also proposals to install giant blowers to waft a gentle breeze over the beach.
Of course, the whole thing comes with a carbon footprint that would give Al Gore palpitations. But it is for the VERY rich, so why worry?
Soheil Abedian, founder and president of Palazzo Versace, said he believed it is possible to design a refrigerated beach and make it sustainable. “We will suck the heat out of the sand to keep it cool enough to lie on,” he said. “This is the kind of luxury that top people want” … The 10-storey hotel will have 213 rooms, several with their own internal swimming pools, plus 169 apartments …
Competition to serve the world’s rich is getting intense, especially in Dubai. The city already boasts the world’s first seven-star hotel, the Burj Al Arab, while Armani, a competitor with Versace, is building a similarly branded Dubai hotel. The refrigerated beach is designed to give Versace the edge in this battle of luxury lifestyles.
Jak's View of Vancouver v.3 