The Shimao Wonderland Hotel in Shanghai

Shimao Wonderland Hotel in Shanghai is Built into an Abandoned Quarry and Features Underwater Rooms

The Shimao Wonderland Hotel in Shanghai, China is a project that was started back in 2006 and was expected to be open for business in 2015, however it is still under construction and will likely not be completely finished in the immediate future, as there have not been any recent announcements thus far about its official opening date.

What is most interesting about this awesome architectural project is that it is being built on the side of an abandoned quarry, which is a location where stone was mined underground for construction purposes. Typically, once the quarry runs out of stone or is no longer needed, then it often goes abandoned and results in a build-up of rainwater to create a small man-made lake.

Instead of leaving this rather large quarry abandoned, the Shanghai Shimao Property Group has decided to invest $555 million dollars into a project that would create an incredibly futuristic hotel with underwater rooms, luxurious restaurants, a banquet hall, cafes, conference rooms and even extreme sports such as rock climbing and bungee jumping.

The hotel will also include up to 400 rooms and are said to be priced at around $320 per night, not too bad if rock climbing and bungee jumping are included.

Atkins is the architectural company behind the design and the team and the project leader is Martin Jochman along with architects Paul Rice, Hu Yali, Zhang Jian and Ding Fang.

The architectural team plans to build a cascading waterfall that will fall 17 stories from the top of the quarry all the way down to the pool at the bottom.

There will also be other features such as an underwater public area where you can go to relax under the water and enjoy a very interesting environmental setting. You can also expect transparent glass to be conveniently located in the center of the building to allow visitors to view the waterfall from a safe perspective.

The design of the hotel also includes green roofing to allow the owners to produce geothermal energy from the artificially created lake that will generate both electricity and heating for the hotel, a great way to save money.

Does this seem like a hotel that you would stay at? What do you think would you do differently if you were the architect leading this project?