TO INFINITY & BEYOND
Dubai unveils world’s biggest infinity pool between TWO skyscrapers – but it will cost up to £10k to swim in it
It comes as Saudi Arabia's megalomaniac plans to become the centre of the world seem to be crashing down
DUBAI has now become home to the world's longest infinity pool floating hundreds of metres up in the sky between two skyscrapers.
Measuring an astonishing 120 metres (393 feet) in length, a quick splash in the ultra-lux pool can cost you up to £10,000.
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It will be located in The Link, the longest cantilever building on the planet, perched atop the structure 100 metres high.
A cantilever is a single-ended construction that extends horizontally without any support, similar to a diving board.
The one at One Za'abeel will extend 67.5 metres (221 feet) over the city and have three storeys.
Straddled between the two towers of the building, the infinity pool area will feature luxurious cabanas with unobstructed views of the Dubai skyline.
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Tourists and Dubai residents can access the pool with a day pass, which costs 1,000 dirhams ($272) per person and ranges up to $10,000 for VIP cabanas with their own music system, air conditioning, bathrooms, dining rooms, and private garden.
Guests are also promised to enjoy a pool club and restaurant across the top of The Link.
Those wanting to stay a little longer can get a room at a hotel which occupies the top 30 floors of one of the towers.
“In the absence of a beach and other water-based activities, our guests will have The Link as their playground,” said Badr Benryane, director of food and beverage at the One&Only Za’abeel resort.
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According to Fadi Jabri, CEO of Nikken Sekkei Dubai, the architecture firm behind the building, The Link unites the two towers of the opulent construction and offers a place for shared amenities and lifestyle features.
The site is bisected by a six-lane highway, which meant building facilities at ground level was not possible, and “there was this need to rejoin those sites,” he explained.
The developers of the property negotiated the use of the area beneath and above the road, which enabled them to link the two towers with the Link above and a shopping centre beneath.
Dubai is home to numerous record-breaking pools.
In 2021, the Aura Skypool became the world's highest 360-degree infinity pool
And the Address Beach Resort's 293.9-meter-high (964.2-foot) pool on the 77th floor of Dubai's Jumeirah Gate is the world's tallest infinity pool within a structure.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia' egomaniac plans to become the centre of the world don't seem to be going well.
Dreams in tatters
Through massive investments as part of Saudi Arabia Vision 2030, the nation revealed its 15 wildly ambitious projects funded by oil billions at an unprecedented rate.
But they look like they're crashing down after being labelled "untethered to reality".
Touting with technology that is yet to be invented, the Kingdom aims to build the world's tallest skyscrapers, futuristic cities and even a fake moon.
In line with the megalomania vision of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi is desperate to be the centre of the world.
But despite spending the whopping £1 trillion to get it all done by the end of the decade, Saudi Arabia might not be ditching its reliance on oil so soon.
Its flagship project, The Line, promised to be a 106-mile long sideways skyscraper and transform Saudi Arabia's economy but it was now dramatically scaled back to a measely 2.4km.
Analysts have also long voiced doubts about the project, which has often boasted technology that has yet to be created.
A former employee previously described The Line as "untethered to reality".
A Bloomberg investigation from 2022, which interviewed 25 personnel and reviewed 2,700 pages of internal papers, saw the project be beset by setbacks and delays.
Citing sources close to the project in its story on Saudi Arabia downscaling The Line, Bloomberg reported that the kingdom has failed to approve NEOM's budget for 2024, despite the fact that it is already well into April.
NEOM's massive expenditure is reportedly beginning to worry officials, implying that Saudi Arabia's tremendous riches may not be as limitless as previously thought.
Several of the projects mentioned in Vision 2030 are also due to be postponed beyond the end-of-decade date.
Finance Minister Mohammed Al Jadaan said in December that the project will require more time to build "factories" and "sufficient human resources".
"The delay or extension of some projects will benefit the economy," he explained.
The practicality of NEOM and The Line has also long been questioned.
Last year, architect and urban planner Etienne Bou-Abdo said the 3D visuals provided "are not classical 3D architecture images", and the project designers "have rather called upon video game designers".
He claimed that the plan contains "a lot of technology that we don't have today."
Many of The Line's essential elements, notably those linked to energy and transportation, are predicated on technology that do not yet exist, even in prototype.
Since its inception, the Crown Prince's vision for the project has changed frequently, making it difficult for experts to predict his next move.
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"The concept has morphed so much from its early conception that it's sometimes hard to determine its direction: scaling down, scaling up, or making an aggressive turn sideways," said Robert Mogielnicki of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, following the presentation in 2022.
'Built on blood'
SAUDI Arabia has been unveiling wildly ambitious projects funded by oil billions at an unprecedented rate.
But beneath the glitzy facade lies a story of threats, forced evictions and bloodshed.
Many projects have faced fierce criticism over human rights abuses - including the $500billion Neom project where tribes were shoved out of their homeland, imprisoned or executed.
At least 20,000 members of the Huwaitat tribe face eviction, with no information about where they will live in the future.
Authorities in the port city of Jeddah also demolished many houses to implement Saudi's development plans - with thousands of locals evicted illegally.
One campaigner claimed "Neom is built on Saudi blood".
Jeed Basyouni, Middle East director of the human rights organisation Reprieve, told DW: "We have seen, time and again, that anyone who disagrees with the crown prince, or gets in his way, risks being sentenced to jail or to death."
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