Snow and rain in Dubai: Where, when you can experience it?

It will snow and rain on the streets of Europe in Dubai!

The technology to make it happen on some of the plazas and streets of The Heart of Europe, a project by Kleindienst Group on The World islands, has been provided by Fraunhofer Institute, Europe’s largest application-oriented research organisation.

“Almost 150 years back, Camillo Sitte, an Austrian architect, proposed to build cities where everything was in walking distance. I am following his idea, but to be able to walk from one place to another you should have the right climate,” Kleindienst CEO Josef Kleindienst told Emirates24|7 in an exclusive interview.

Work in progress at The Heart of Europe's Sweden island.

“With the temperature here being 40 to 50 degrees Celsius during summer, people are not going to walk outside and, therefore, we decided that we need a technology to create an outdoor climate-controlled area,” he reveals.

Engineers and consultants from the European institute visited Dubai in 2008 to understand the climate here and conduct their research.

According to Kleindienst, the technology interferes with the temperature, humidity and wind to ensure a cooler clime outdoor.

View of THOE

“Fraunhofer engineers asked us if we wanted to reduce the temperature as in any other buildings and malls by using cold air, or we wanted cold water in the form of rain. We opted for rain as we knew people would love it.”

As soon as the temperature will go above 27 degrees Celsius on the island, cold water in the form of rain will fall from top of the buildings through concealed pipes. The project will be completed by 2017.

“But in one of the plazas on the island of Switzerland, we will control the temperature through technical snow produced from water. The project will be complete in 2018,” the CEO said.

Effective drainage system

The company is working on building an efficient drainage system to immediately drain the water from the streets.

“We need to avoid humidity so it is very important to get the water off the street right away and so we are using the right material and building an effective drainage system.”

Asked about the cost of energy and technology, Kleindienst said the energy consumed  is not more than that used by any mall of a similar size, but technology came at a price.

“We are, however, confident we will attract, especially in summer, a lot of tourists and day visitors as this will be the only place in the region where in the midst of summer you can sit on streets under an umbrella and it will rain from time to time,” he stated.

The Heart of Europe comprises six islands: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden and St. Petersburg. The islands will be linked by unifying architectural principles and characterised by sleek designs inspired by their namesake countries.  The developer has launched  'floating seahorse', a three-level marine style retreat with one floor underwater.

The CEO said they will handover the first villas on the Sweden Island, priced at Dh55 million if furnished by Bentley, or else Dh40 million, by end-2016.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.