The Heart of Europe's famed Floating Seahorse villas are coming to Ras Al Khaimah.
Not only do the homes by developer Kleindienst Group bob about in the middle of the Arabian Gulf, but they also come with a basement under the water. A glass wall enables residents to peer directly out to sea from the comfort of their couch.
A total of 133 such villas are part of the latest phase of the project, of which 70 are located off the coast of Dubai – and 63 will soon be built in the RAK free zone, Josef Kleindienst, chairman of Kleindienst Group, tells The National. While the original Seahorses were priced from Dh88 million in Dubai, the rate for the Ras Al Khaimah pods will be decided once an escrow account is launched soon after the summer.
Kleindienst describes the latest crop of floating villas as “generation four”, based on the continual improvements to design and technology.
“There will be a coral garden attached on two sides of each unit,” he says. “Imagine your balcony in an apartment or villa, but you have corals and fish instead of flowers.”
While the floating villas will be the same size as their Heart of Europe counterparts – so 4,004 square feet, set across three storeys and including an external deck – they will have different fit-outs. The first 24, for instance, will use furniture from Bentley Homes.
The Seahorses are not the only waterborne projects in the group's pipeline. In 2027, Floating Venice will open its doors on the Heart of Europe islands. “This is a floating hotel resort,” explains Kleindienst. "Where the Seahorses have one level underwater, Floating Venice will have two levels underwater, including walkways.
This project will be followed by Floating Lido, which takes maritime technology to greater depths – quite literally. “Floating Venice – and most other hotels like it – need to be built on protected islands or lagoons. Lido is designed to be used in the open ocean,” says the pioneering Kleindienst.
Following an MoU recently signed between his group and RAK Ports to establish a maritime facility and state-of-the-art shipyard, the Floating Venice and Floating Lido structures will be built in the emirate and then shipped to Dubai.
Explaining the decision, Kleindienst says: “The one who builds is the best to maintain. We cannot buy our structures in Europe and then have nobody here to maintain them. Therefore we decided to bring the know-how to the UAE, and keep construction and maintenance in our hands.”
He adds: “Compared to private boats that are only taken out from time to time for a few hours, the yachts servicing the Heart of Europe island as well as our floating structures run 24/7, as it were. So the agents and generators used normally are not for our kind of high-duty run.”
Another ambitious project part of this deal is the design and construction of a 144-metre giga-yacht, the first of its kind to be built outside of Europe. “The maritime industry defines a yacht bigger than 90 metres as 'giga' and to date, there are fewer than 100 giga-yachts in the ocean,” says Kleindienst.
“Why it was important for us to consider this project is because giga-yachts are at the forefront of technology and now sustainability; a giga designed yacht today is more sustainable than any small boat. Industry operators and investors have realised the more luxurious they are, the more sustainable they have to be.
“Add to this, we have a customer for the giga-yacht plus a shipyard partner in Europe that normally builds these designs there. So that was also the enabler to set up the shipyard for giga-yachts. In a sense, the decisions – to build our own boats, the Floating Seahorses, Floating Venice and so on in the UAE – are all related.”
