This post has been corrected.
The city of Rotterdam, land of experimental green technology and avant-garde architecture, has dreamed up yet another way to do both—in the form of a ferris wheel-windmill-hotel.
The proposed new attraction, named the Dutch Windwheel, is the vision of Rotterdam-based architecture firm Doepel Strijkers and the Dutch Windwheel Corporation, a group of Rotterdam-based companies. Echoing the look of the London Eye, the two-ring structure would include an outer ring housing a 570 ft (174m) tall ferris wheel with 40 cabins that journey underwater.
The inner ring of the Windwheel would house a 160-room hotel, 72 apartments, a restaurant, and a panoramic balcony. The center of the structure, or the “donut hole,” would be a high-tech windmill that converts wind into electricity using a blade-less technology called EWICON (video), which sprays water particles into the air against an electric field to generate energy.
The designers are hoping that a blade-less design involving fewer moving parts than a standard windmill would help minimize wear-and-tear, and lower maintenance costs and noise levels.
The concept will require a lot more work to come to life. Aside from deciding on location, architects say it wouldn’t open for at least another decade and would require further developing the EWICON technology currently used in blade-less windmills to generate enough power for the hotel.
Correction: A previous version of this post stated the wrong architect as the designer for the Dutch Windwheel. The correct architecture firm is Doepel Strijkers.