In between. Blue hole, Dahab, Egypt

Underwater has always been attractive and curiosity for human beings. Exploring, employing and being part of underwater has been a challenge for them at all times. The first underwater structures were products of engineering studies and have been used for fields of scientific researches and observations, military purposes and obtaining energy for centuries. However, underwater is a new medium for human for entertainment purposes; and correspondingly new subject which is worth to study for architects. Designing underwater structures became a race between architects and engineers during the last years. Accordingly, underwater hotel and restaurant projects were realized. Currently, underwater structures can have uttered as a fantasy and a new understanding for architecture, however in the future underwater may be suggested as a new accommodation area. The thesis aims to point out the design consideration of an underwater structure from not merely engineering, but also architectural aspects. Designing underwater has its own principles and characteristics and these should be asserted under the light of the study on former structures. On the other hand, basic criteria and purposes of architectural aspects for underwater structures should be defined to meet requirements of human. To achieve that, it focuses majorly on many architectural as well as technological parameters that will be pointed out and interpreted according to the conditions and limitations of the environment, and all the challenges that must be kept in mind before designing a building underwater in order to set the fundamentals for architectural approaches to underwater design. These parameters discussed in this project are the basic fluid mechanics and the idea of basic form, structure, services and materials, also taking into consideration the environment in which we decided to integrate our project, and the protection of underwater creatures, therefore the research part of the project focuses mainly of the blue hole Dahab and the marine life inside the hole. The final design was made on all the aspects generated by the study, creating an environmental friendly tower and helps with the preservation of nature by its innovative envelope that is composed of artificial reefs where marine life will extend to the surface of the building, resulting in a complete integration with nature, to give the underwater architecture a whole new meaning.