Art History - Atlantis in Dubai, UAE - Research Paper Example

Art History - Atlantis in Dubai, UAE The Hotel Atlantis is a magnificent piece of art, architecture and engineering that encompasses culture, design, history and class. It is designed to reflect the lost city of Atlantis, and as such, it is full of ancient art including underground pathways. Atlantis, of which the hotel is themed, was first mentioned by Plato in his dialogues with his student (Kleiner 95). To date the island has never been found but was thought to be an island in the Atlantic Ocean, and some suggest the current Athens to be the Atlantis (Donnelly 75). The developer of the hotel, Sol Kerzner was immensely amazed by this myth and decided to capture it in a hotel. Hotel Atlantis is basically ocean themed and a major consideration in its design was to give visitors and guests in the hotel a feel of being under the ocean. Second theme on its design is that of a ruined and lost city below the sea, after the Atlantis. It is named after this mystical lost city. As a result, it is a rich source of ancient history, dating back to the 9600 BC although it is argued to be around 900 BC by a school of thought who thought that Plate was mistaken in his representations as to the dates that the city existed (Kleiner 112). The location of the mythical islands is also a matter of contention, with one school of thought claiming it is in the Atlantic while a majority believes that it is in the Mediterranean Sea. However, in our case, the hotel is located in the palm Jumeirah, an island in the artificial palm island in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The hotel was designed to capture the Atlantis culture, the Arabic culture and give an underwater concept. It is a marvelous piece of architecture, rich in art, in the paintings, carvings and top notch murals. The hotel is owned by Kerzner holdings and Istithmar Company. Its design is hugely borrowed from the Atlantis Resort in Bahamas, another chain of Kerzner Holdings. The hotel opened in 2008, one year after it was started construction in 2007. Many consider this hotel as the trademark of the Jumeirah islands, an icon hotel in Dubai and also double as one of the most expensive hotels in the world (Kleiner 45). The Atlantis palm sits on more than one hundred and ten acres and includes one thousand five hundred and thirty rooms. As mentioned earlier, its design is strongly influenced by the Atlantis Paradise in the Bahamas. It was inspired by Sol Kerzner, who had envisioned constructing a hotel modeled on the Atlantis, a well-known mythical lost city. There is a long story behind the origins of this myth, but the story dates back to Cranto. Cranto was Plato’s student who overheard Plato telling his guests at a dinner party about a lost city. The city was said to have sunk in one day when Atlantis was trying to attack and capture Athens but instead sunk into the ocean. This is important to know as the hotel Atlantis has a huge collection of underwater developments with most of its most exotic cites being below the ocean. The hotel Atlantis in Dubai was intended to amaze its guests and importantly capture their imaginations. In its lavish design, it includes a water park with rivers flowing through architectural structures depicting those in the lost city. It includes the Mayan temples in its expansive aqua venture water park. The hotel saw the input of more than six thousand people participating in its construction and development as workers. The hotel Atlantis was designed with a wide variety of marine habitats and an endless amount of water pools. The Lagoon exhibits render an amazing view to the visitors who are also entertained to the open long beach. The visitors are transported to these theme parks which circle through numerous restraints and shopping malls on the expansive forty five acre area of the resort. The hotel is designed to give a great architectural view while presenting guests with amazing water experiences. It includes sites for fresh water and also salt water pools. The marine park is a great attraction and feature of this hotel as it is open air. As a reflection of its Atlantis theme, the developers wanted to include almost all available species of marine life as Atlantis was thought to have all the species. As a matter of fact, the Atlantis was thought to be a city nearing perfection. As such, the Hotel Atlantis is designed to perfection. It is a major source of amazement as between glass passages it contains sharks. The passages are designed to transport the visitors underground and have many falls and rapids. As a feature, it passes though, a temple designed from the Mesopotamia type Ziggurat. This temple rises to thirty one meters in the sky (Donnelly 34). As an attraction, to the temple, it is fitted with waterslides that drive the visitors to caves containing sharks. The hotel also includes a marine habitat known as the Ambassador lagoon. It contains numerous marine species and aspects of marine life in it are over ten million liter water habitat. The habitat s designed such a way that visitors get a glimpse of the Atlantis city. These ruins, though, remain a myth represent the lost city and give an artist’s portrayal or representation of the mystical Atlantis. Next in the aqua water park is a larger than life dolphin bay. It sits on about five hectares and offers a dolphin protection and learning center where the visitors interact with the dolphins and are educated on how to preserve and protect them (Donnelly 231). The designers took extra care in designing a hotel that reflected on the political, socio-cultural and cultures of the United Arab Emirates. The artists designed sculptures reflective of the environment and the natural habits of the surrounding. The sculptures were designed by David Rockwell among others. The Atlantis also has a wide collection of hand-painted murals, top among them designed and painted by Jeffery Beers. The extraordinary fountains within the Atlantis were designed hugely by Wilson and Associates and are hugely reflective of the surrounding sea environment. It is the fountains that give the visitors an ocean feel, within an ocean. Adam Tihany was notable in his contribution towards the paintings and vast artwork in the hotel Atlantis. In the inside design, of the hotel is the royal towers. They house the more than one thousand five hundred room giving each a private balcony. It is important to note that the suites in the royal towers are named after the ancient Greek gods. One suite is named after Neptune, who according to ancient roman mythology was the Roman god of the sea. The next suite is named after Poseidon, who the ancient Greek god of the sea. As noted by naming, the suites reflect on gods of the sea as a reflection of its oceanic theme. This is encompassed in the ancient Atlantis theme. As the lost ruins were thought to around the Greek empire, a lot is borrowed from the Greek culture including naming where names of Greek gods are used. It is also symbolic that Poseidon is used as the name of the suites. This gives a sense of protection to those guests and visitors who believe in the ancient mythologies. The royal towers also give the visitors to the hotel a view of the vast Arabia gulf and the other of the islands in the palm network. Some of the rooms are located in the lost city chambers while overlooking the lagoons. This is meant to give the visitors a feel of being underneath the ocean while also being in a ruined city, the Atlantis. Its location in the artificial palm islands is also strategic for its structural design. For a hotel that cost out one and half billion dollars, architecture was top notch. The hotel is hotel is accessed via an underwater channel which emerges near the hotel, and the design of the tunnel to the palm was another architectural feat (Donnelly 152). The hotel Atlantis encompasses entertainment, amusement, business and exploration. With the Marine Park and magnificent ruins, it provides an ancient time feeling. This combined with the features of the lost chambers gives the hotel a unique characteristic of art. The design was supposed to capture the ancient Greek culture, and the ancient French culture that influenced the Atlantis myth. In the hotel, the architecture, art and designs also capture an Arabian theme fused with a rich oceanic theme. The hotel developer hired Dale Chihuly to design the sculptures for the hotel. Dale Chihuly task was to bring beauty and sophistication to a paradise themed resort. The developer, Sol Kerzner’s expectation was for sculptures that could be related to by any guest and visitor to the hotel, regardless of their ethnic or cultural background. He wanted the feel of the moon and the sun encompassed in magnificent sculptures. Dale Chihuly designed four statuettes that captured the mood and theme of the Atlantis palm hotel. These sculptures have reflected the beauty of the hotel. His first sculpture was a crystal gate. The crystal gate is perhaps the most important piece of art in the hotel, which is placed strategically at the grand hotel entrance (Donnelly 430). It is a shining, gleaming sculpture of crystal as tall as twenty feet. It is designed to reflect the magnificent theme of the resort and as a welcome gesture. This was borrowed, from the ancient Mesopotamian cultures to intone radiance. It is situated at the hotel entrance, and it is hard for any visitor to miss it. It depicts a shrub sprouting from ground, typical of shrubs shooting isolated in the desert. This is important as it is meant to depict the Atlantis as a new adventure of its kind, an aspect the developer wanted to capture. Next is a temple of the sun. It is made of two thousand, three hundred elements of different colors. The colors are illuminated from a globe that is designed to resemble a temple from the ancient Maya culture of southern America. The sun was a very important symbol among the ancient Egyptians and Greeks and some associated it with the gods. This was also the case for the Mayan culture. The Maya culture is very symbolic in the hotel’s theme as the lost Atlantis ruins are rumored to be somewhere nearing the American continent. In fact, Christopher Columbus is said to have stumbled on America while searching for the Atlantis islands. This story; however, has not been confirmed, but due to the nature of his landing, the Atlantis ruins must be situated near South America, Europe and Africa. Most of the temples set out in the hotel Atlantis are of ancient Mayan origin, and the temple of the sun has colors that were significant in the Mayan culture. These are red, yellow and orange and give a magnificent radiance. Another sculpture by the designer, Dale Chihuly is a blue and white glass structure of a temple (Steiner 543). This representation of the moon temple originating from ancient Maya and it illuminate the rooms in the hotel with a moonlike light. The moon was very significant to the Mayan people and culture, and as such even their temples faced the moon. The fourth structure notable from the designer Dale Chihuly is a glass structure that depicts the sea creatures such a jell fish. This structure is an ideal representation of the sea creatures around the Atlantis hotel, which are also captured in its marine park and its huge aquarium. The designer of the structure also bore in mind the fact that, in the ancient Atlantis myth, it was rumored to have all the sea creatures, almost over sixty five thousand different forms. The hotel is thus rich in the art that hugely uses the light to give a magical view. The use of light should also be significant as a representation of the Egyptian culture. This is thus a hotel boasting very diverse yet integrated cultures. The architectural style of this hotel ranges from the ancient Egypt. The doors have a dome shaped apex, which was very predominant in ancient Egypt. The sculptures also portray a feel of Mesopotamia and the greater Mediterranean culture. Also, notable in the design of the Atlantis hotel is the presence of many representations of temples some from the Greek culture and the majority from the Maya culture. The temples are a rich representation of ancient culture, and since the Atlantis sunk near the islands of South America, it was important for the designers of this hotel to enrich it with this culture (Steiner 234). Another notable piece of art in the hotel Atlantis is the design of the bars and restaurants all around the hotel. They have richly been enriched with wood, notably hardwood trees some of which were very rare to find. This was used to give it an ancient feeling and also reflect on the essence of ancient buildings and structures that were mainly wooden. The ceilings have been painted richly in representations of water or marine life. Fish, different kind and weeds of the sea are depicted in different colors and shades. The artist tried create a harmony between these creatures with intonations of them integrating which also relates to the ancient myth of the ruined city. As the myth goes, the city of Atlantis sunk while on a mission to capture Athens. This is to say that conflict can be detrimental to the very existence of the species. To this respect, the hotel developed the dolphin sector, where guests and visitor’s swim, play and interact with the dolphins. The hotel in so doing has emphasized on the need for harmony in co-existence between humans and other species. Lastly, the murals in the hotel have been designed to depict the palms, which are an important aspect of the island. As the hotel lies in the palm island, it was important to give it a palm impression even inside. It is also a reflection of Dubai as a whole which is rich with palms, and as with everything in this hotel, the palms date to ancient times (Steiner 453). In conclusion, the hotel Atlantis is rich in history, art and architecture while maintaining a modern concept of a five star hotel. It has also served to preserve the Arabic culture with Arabian motifs very dominant. This is important as it serves to promote the culture of the surrounding areas, making even the fabric of the carpets in rich Islamic cloths. The hotel Atlantis; therefore, is a great piece of art, and it will serve to preserve the ancient myths for posterity sake. Guests visiting this resort will not only be entertained, but also educated about history. The hotel is a political symbol of power and influence as depicted in the ancient dynasties it represents and influence in the other ventures that will be molded around it. It is a cultural center, with several television shows and sitcoms having been shot here. Notably is the Amazing Race and the movie Casino Royale. It is an economic hub of Dubai, and with its staggering rates per night, it is right to say that the hotel Atlantis is one of the most expensive hotels in the world. The hotel Atlantis; therefore, is a symbol of magnificent architecture, engineering and art (Steiner 134). Works cited: Donnelly, Ignatius. Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. New York, NY: Forgotten Books. 1949. Print Kleiner, Fred. Art through the Ages: A Global History. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. 2010. Print ---. Gardners Art through the Ages: the Western Perspective, Volume 2 .Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. 2009. Print Steiner, Rudolf. Atlantis: The Fate of a Lost Land and Its Secret Knowledge. London: Rudolf Steiner Press. 2007. Print Read More