Tropical Islands Resort
Thursday, 15th June 2006 by James Turnbull
Tropical Island Resort is a large artificial "exotic island" resort in Germany. The 107m tall building was designed and built as a hangar for CL160 Super Heavy-Lift Cargo Airships, but the airships were never constructed so the hangar was a bit useless.
A Malaysian company later bought the hangar and added artificial sunlight, palm trees, sand, swimming pools and bird noises to create the illusion of paradise. The resort is open 24hours all year round and perhaps as a homage to the building's intended use there is a small blimp parked on the runway outside.
But all we really care about is the records - the dome is one of the largest buildings on Earth by volume but its true record is the world's largest single hall without supporting pillars inside. Wooooo.
Thanks: Pille
Is “hanger” a Britishism? In the US they are “hangars”, but I’ve been seeing “hanger” a lot lately.
Anyway, I remember reading about this last year; the development is considered a promising sign of post-Cold War potential for Eastern Europe and the former GDR. Unfortunately, as it turns out, most of the employees drive in from the western side.
Here’s the official url (in der Anglisch): http://www.my-tropical-islands.com/index-e.htm There are a fair number of pictures of the inside.
That is one massive hangar. I’ve always wanted to go to one of those massive beaches.
Keith – Nope, it’s just bad spelling! Thanks for pointing it out, now fixed.
its size is overwhelming, have a look at http://www.my-tropical-islands.com/presse/presse-fotos/dome5.jpg
wow! Cheers for that link
>>>> perhaps as a homage to the building’s intended use there is a small blimp parked on the runway outside. >>>>
The images of that region are a few years old. That time the company was still trying to build the airships. And that blimp was a testing vehicle. I think it’s not there anymore because it was sold.
Looks like the area was a military airport in the age of the cold war. Look for all the hidden hangars beside the runway
Don’t they have hangers like this in San Francisco Area – seems to me I saw them last time I was there
This image was made when the hangar what still under construction. I worked in it while it was still an airship hangar. Note that the “small blimp” image is actually a Skyship 600, built by our company in the USA, and is actual 67 meters long, not that small, and was used for advertising, not practice.