Indoor Tropical Island

fons writes "The huge construction dome of the now bankrupt zeppelin maker CargoLifter, has been turned into an indoor tropical island. For about 20euro a day you can swim in the sea, take a walk in the rainforest or go to a beachparty. While it is snowing outside, it's a always a pleasant 25C on the island. And there are no tsunami's. It's bigger than Biosphere2 (it fits the Eiffeltower) but there's less sunlight. Would you spend your vacation in there? The Germans don't seem to be very eager."

Comments

Meh

[t_allardyce]

I was imagining some sort of technical marvel like the Truman Show set with realistic looking sky, sun rays, jungle you could get lost in and most importantly an actual island with water all the way around (i think thats still the definition of an island?). Instead I see something that looks like a cross between a sports hall, a tacky cruise liner and some kind of theme park but without the rides. The whole thing looks very dark and dead, they atleast need retina-burning spotlights or something to hide the ugly structure? The jungle is just a load of trees with a linear zig-zag paved path! and I bet they won't let kids climb the trees for safety reasons, if I was 8 I would be pretty pissed off.

In Japan...

[Xenna]

They've had something like that for ages:

http://www.gluckman.com/IndoorBeach.html

what i'd like to see

[utexaspunk]

I really think the biosphere 2 people got it wrong by trying to recreate all the various biomes of the Earth in one building. That, and the whole issue with the concrete reacting with their atmosphere says to me that they really didn't plan very well. I'd like to see someone try to make a contained ecosystem that is engineered with the sole purpose of keeping some humans alive and comfortable. I wonder how many species of plants and animals would be necessary for such a thing.

It seems like it could be a lot simpler than what Biosphere 2 tried to do, and a lot more likely to be successful. It would also be beneficial in helping us figure out what we'll need for long-term space missions.

I live in Germany.

[torpor]

Germans ain't got no beach. So what if they've now 'got one' in a bubble, it still ain't no beach. That said, its still frickin' cool .. tho' its far from me, I may one day take a day trip just to go experience it, though ..

And .. as an Australian who just got back from Australia, and our glorious, glorious, oh so *sob* glorious *sob* beaches .. let me just say that this 'bubble-sphere' thingy is Very Welcome in the dismal reality that is the German countryside. What am I doing living here?!!

[If it weren't for my perfect German job, I'd be back home on the beaches tomorrow, sheesh..]