The $5 billion megaproject includes a luxury resort and lunar colony.
The moon may well be landing in the UAE. Moon Dubai is an ambitious tourism project, which has been proposed for the city. The Canadian architectural company, Moon World Resorts Inc, have designed the $5 billion moon-shaped destination. If it gets the royal approval, here’s what you can expect.
From a distance, Moon Dubai looks, well, like the moon. The 735-foot high spherical structure includes a lunar surface, which lights up at night like the moon. It is designed to cover everything you could possibly want from a luxury resort, as it includes a wellness centre, night club and even a casino (you are on the moon’s surface, after all). Plus, there is an events centre and residences.
Moon Dubai aims to put Dubai on the space tourism map, as it includes training services for space agencies and astronauts around the world. For those of us who can’t afford a ticket on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic – it’s $450,000 for a seat – Moon Dubai may well be the next best thing.
At Moon Dubai, a moon shuttle mimics taking off to the moon, as it heads to the 10-acre lunar surface. Visitors will be given a medical check and safety briefing, and then a 90-minute tour of the lunar colony.
Only 12 people have ever set foot on the moon, so this hopes to open up that experience right here on Earth. If completed, it aims to annually welcome 10 million people and make $1.8bn. Those sorts of figures only come along once in a blue moon, and it would make this the most visited attraction in the Middle East.
Moon Dubai has been created by Sandra G Matthews and Michael R Henderson. The pair are about to embark on a 2023 roadshow and hunt for licensees. The duo are keen for there to be four moon resorts across the world in countries such as the UAE, United States, Singapore and Spain.
The designers were inspired by the architects Frank Gehry and Richard Rogers. In particular, they were drawn to the structures of Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao Museum in Spain. If the design has lift off, it would require a 12-month pre-development planning program and a 48-month build-out process. So, the earliest that it could be completed is 2027.
The UAE sure loves a megaproject, as just recently, proposals for Downtown Circle, a 550-meter-tall ring around the Burj Khalifa, got everyone talking. Since the UAE is a country where anything is architecturally possible, from artificial islands to the world’s tallest building, Moon Dubai sounds like one small step for Dubai.
Are you over the moon or over the Moon Dubai?
GO: Visit www.moonworldresorts.com for more information.
