A swanky new waterfront development in Dubai will feature the UAE’s first floating houses, plus restaurants and a yacht club that also bob on the waves – all made in a factory in Finland and "sailed" to the Gulf later this year.
Finnish firm Admares has been awarded phase one of the Marasi Business Bay development in Dubai featuring 10 houses said to be the UAE’s first-ever homes on water with pedestrian and boat access.
These and two restaurants and a yacht club floating on the Dubai Water Canal will be joined eventually by a 700-birth marina and an onshore shopping, leisure and office complex comprising the development led by Dubai Properties.
Admares will supply 10 pre-manufactured luxury homes, two restaurants and a yacht club for Marasi Business Bay (Admares)
Admares, a pioneer of floating real estate, was awarded the contract after supplying a new 5,000-tonne deck – also shipped from Finland – over the water for Dubai’s iconic sail-shaped hotel, the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah.
The company said on 24 January that it began production of the floating buildings in October last year, with all of the manufacturing and outfitting to be finished in Finland before transportation by sea to Dubai in the third quarter of this year.
"Our objective is to create unique, innovative and environmentally friendly real estate products, utilising ground breaking, multi-disciplinary offsite construction technology," said Admares CEO Mikael Hedberg.
The development on Dubai Water Canal will have a 700-birth marina and an onshore shopping, leisure and office complex (Admares)
Abdulla M. Lahej, Group CEO of Dubai Properties, said of Admares: "Their use of innovative technologies and unique construction techniques to deliver this type of pioneering structures will ensure that these unique homes on water, and the surrounding promenade, parks and marina, will be one of the most sought after residential destinations in the city."
The voyage to Dubai will have many nautical twists and turns.
The flotilla of house boats would "sail" from Finland southeast through the Baltic Sea, skirting Denmark to enter the North Sea, and go through the English Channel into the Atlantic Ocean.
Hanging a left through the Strait of Gibraltar it would travel the length of the Mediterranean before wending its way through Egypt’s Suez Canal.
Travelling then south through the long, narrow Red Sea, it would emerge into the Gulf of Aden. Proceeding into the Arabian Sea along the coasts of Yemen and Oman, it would hang another left northeast into the Gulf of Oman, then squeeze through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf, where Dubai lies to the southeast along the UAE coast.
