Water Discus Is Another Proposed Underwater Hotel. Will Someone Please Build One Of These? 27 Awesome Images.

Water Discus is yet another proposed underwater hotel which, like the previous ones I've posted, would amaze me if it ever comes to fruition*.

*(note that previous underwater and floating architectural companies I have blogged about, Aquadomi and Oceanic Creations have since disappeared or declared bankruptcy)



DOT (Deep Ocean Technology) explains the rationale behind the concept: “Top-rated resorts offering luxurious conditions and amenities have become the new standard for active leisure. A wide selection of luxury hotels can be found in virtually every part of the world. But we bring you a deluxe hotel combined with a real marine adventure and breath-taking views found only in the heart of the ocean.”




The view from your room:


The Water Discus has been designed by Deep Ocean Technology in Gdynia, Poland, which has patented the modular design comprised of two discs - an underwater and above-water one.




This combination will allow guests to admire the depths of the ocean while making the most of the warm climate. The two parts of the structure are connected by five solid legs and a vertical shaft containing a lift and stairway. The size of each disc has been adjusted to local conditions.

The Surroundings:


The complex is surrounded by a beautifully vibrant coral reef. This unique location will allow you to enjoy the tropical weather and the colourful underwater world, which is just within your reach and will engage all your senses.

Accommodations:
The disc, located up to 10 metres beneath the surface of the sea, is composed of 21 hotel rooms adjacent to the underwater dive centre and a bar. Each room is integrated with the underwater world as closely as possible, offering a surprisingly direct, yet safe contact with the local flora and fauna.








Special lighting system of the area around the room and the miniature underwater vehicles which can be operated from inside will allow you to take a closer look at even the most microscopic underwater creatures using macro photography. We also ensure that our guests can protect their privacy whenever necessary. All rooms are sound-proof and have curtains of different levels of transparency.

Entertainment:


The disc and its adjacent satellites located 5 - 7 metres above the water surface comprise a restaurant, a spa and a special recreation area.



A multifunctional lobby built inside an enormous swimming pool shows the centre of the disc. The area around the underwater part of the complex and diving activities may be watched as they happen on the screens hanging on the lobby walls.





This part of the complex is connected to the satellites with awe-inspiring glass-walled tunnels cutting through a training pool for divers. Its rooftop includes seawater swimming pools (integrated with the training pool). Finally, there is also an exotic garden offering a moment's rest before going back to extreme experiences.





Cuisine
Our elegant and spacious restaurant is a perfect place to regenerate body and soul after a day filled with exciting diving excursions or energetic water sports. The restaurant is located in one of the satellites of the upper discs. Like all rooms in the complex, it offers a magnificent panoramic view.



Module structure
Due to its unique design, Water Discus can be expanded into a bigger resort complex. One of its most notable advantages is that it can be customised to suit the surroundings and the clients.



A single Water Discus is an independent structure with a usable area of approximately 1000 m2 fully equipped to ensure a high level of safety and comfort. It can serve as an individual module - a component of a bigger complex.





Space
A number of such individual modules may be used to build a hotel complex of minimum 2000 m2, which can be further extended with additional modules (1000 - 1500 m2 each).

Location
The aforementioned complex may be constructed anywhere in the world. Each design will be tailor-made to suit its future users and local conditions, such as the shape of the coastal line and depth of water around the coral reef.

Mobility
If any changes in environmental or economic conditions occur, the Water Discus modules can be transferred to a different place. This offers a unique opportunity to live underwater on a permanent basis with unlimited options to change locations. The mobility makes changes in interior design of a hotel much easier, as any disc can be detached and replaced with a new one.

images courtesy of DOT and Trojmiasto

Promotional animated video:

2012 Reviewed in An Animated Infographic by Yiying Lu for Visual.ly

Artist Yiying Lu created this fun animated infographic for the San Francisco based data visualization company Visual.ly

Included after the infographic are some of her good 'old school' hand drawn ink sketches for the project.








Visual.ly
Yiying Lu

The Stunning Opening Sequence For HBO's Game Of Thrones and How It Came To Be.

The second season of the HBO series Game Of Thrones has begun and each time I watch it, I am mesmerized by the opening title sequence. I wanted to share it with my readers and in doing so, came across two wonderful articles I'm cobbling together.

The first is an article on The Hollywood Reporter which features an interview with Angus Wall, who designed the sequence and titles (and long ago, in another lifetime, worked with me as the editor on one of my tv commercials). You may recognize his name from winning Oscars for editing both The Social Network (2010) and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011).

The other, an impressively comprehensive post from Art of The Title, features another interview with Angus Wall as well as wonderful concept sketches and renderings for the opening sequence that I've shown in this post.



The Hollywood Reporter sat down with the talented Wall last year to ask him how he came up with the idea, what it means and how it was executed. Below is a reprint of that interview with added interspersed images from the Art of The Title article: Angus Wall of the company Elastic got Emmy noms for Big Love's and Rome's title design and a win for Carnivale, plus a Social Network editing Oscar. But what's hotter now is his genius opening title sequence for HBO's critical smash Game of Thrones. HBO wanted something like the map that begins books like The Lord of the Rings. "We wanted to do something different from the standard tropes for fantasy maps," Wall tells THR. "So we came up with the idea of a world inside a sphere."

 

The sphere idea came from a '60s sci-fi space station with terrain inside -- yet it had to look nonfuturistic, to evoke the Middle Earth-ish setting of George R.R. Martin's book. "It had to look like it was made in that time, so we immediately referenced Leonardo da Vinci's machines," says Wall. "We wanted it to look like a real place photographed with a real camera."

 

The computer-illusion "camera" swoops from kingdom to kingdom, focusing on the family crest that sits atop each place -- the "sigil." "The sigil becomes the main cog that triggers the animation" -- the da Vinci device, full of interlocking cogs. "So the model of the place emerges out of the floor of the map and comes to life." Like the show itself, the title sequence strives for realism within a fantasy setting. "In the shadowed areas beneath the surface of the map, there are cogs in there. If you look carefully, you'll see they're all working with the cogs that are exposed above the surface of the map."

The six Sigils (or family crests):
 

 And is this cog-filled da Vinci war engine a metaphor for the many hidden, interlocking machinations of the show's families fighting for the throne -- the Houses of Lannister, Baratheon, and Stark? "Absolutely!" says Wall. "And the map reflects the attitude of each place. Winterfell is a lot more rustic." Kind of like the Shire in Tolkien? "Yes. And each place has its own climate. Southern Westeros is more temperate.To the East, Essos is almost Mediterranean. As you go north, Winterfell gets harsher, and further north, The Wall is a continent-wide wall of ice."  

The Wall:
 

Winterfell sketch and final rendering:
 

 Castleblack sketch and rendering:  

Gotswood sketches:
 

 Port city of Pentos:

 

 If you watch the title sequence attentively, you'll see the the feuding families' backstory told in pictures. "In the middle of the sphere there's the sun, and in the middle of the sun there are bands around it, relief sculptures on an astrolabe which tell the legend of the land," explains Wall. "We cut to those three times in the title sequence, so you actually see a history of Westeros and Essos. The third time we see all the animals [representing] the different houses bowing down to the Baratheon stag, which brings us to the present, where there's a Baratheon king [played by Mark Addy]."

 The Astrolabe rendering and final:
 

Got that? George R.R. Martin's 15 million readers are likelier to get it than casual viewers. Wall is bowing down to them, the way he bowed to scholars when he made the Rome opening titles, which were full of authentic graffiti from ancient Rome. "We wanted to be very, very faithful to the book because we knew there would be a large fan base that will be looking at this very carefully," says Wall. In The New Yorker, Laura Miller writes that angry Martin fans call themselves "GRRuMblers," and Martin tells her, "If I f--- it up...they'll come after me with pitchforks and torches."  

Dothrak sketches:
 

Even if you're a peaceable newcomer to Westeros carrying no torch for Martin, Wall thinks the title credits will help you get oriented. "It's not necessarily important that the audience explicitly understands every detail at first. But you always have a sense that there is an internal logic. Title sequences are a weird art -- to function, they have to have that logic -- their own clockwork, as it were."  

Eyrie sketches and rendering:

"It's a map that's constantly evolving," says Wall. "We have four different versions. Episode two has a different title sequence, and there are later episodes where we go to two new locations -- The Eyrie and The Twins." But Wall won't say what clockwork wonders await you there. "Those are treats to come." The two-year Thrones experience was a treat for him. "It's one of the most fun projects I've ever worked on." - Hollywood Reporter And for those interested in a more in depth interview and explanation, be sure to read this article on Art of the Title. In the process of writing this post I came across this hilarious take-off on the Game Of Thrones opening sequence for The Simpsons, which is definitely worth including.



HBO's Game of Thrones