Paradise found: creating our own Middle Eastern fable while redefining tourism in Dubai.

Situated between landscaped tropical gardens containing over 250,000 plants and trees, this iconic structure forms the focal point of the magnificent Palm Jumeirah - a man-made island that has captured the world's imagination with its scale and ingenuity.

Atlantis comprises an iconic 1,539-room five-star hotel, conference centre, themed water park boasting the world's largest captive marine habitat, spas, lounges and some of the finest retail, dining and entertainment in the region. Its inspired design and exquisite build quality has made Atlantis a benchmark tourist destination for the United Arab Emirates. 

All inclusive: in-house delivery

Laing O'Rourke was responsible for the design and construction phases of the 23-storey hotel and water park. Early engagement meant we were able to challenge traditional construction methods and influence planning, design and execution. The possibility of building modularised bathroom 'pods' was appealing to the client, so we developed a pioneering facility to preassemble them in a controlled factory environment for the first time in the UAE. We delivered 1,500 pods direct to site and installed them at a rate of 38 per week. The hotel envelope was redesigned away from labour-intensive blockwork into a modular precast glass-fibre reinforced concrete facade solution. This was designed, manufactured and installed by our in-house specialists Emirates Precast. Select Plant delivered project-wide mechanical and non-mechanical plant requirements. During the concrete-frame delivery, our rebar factory supplied and distributed 23,000t of cut-and-bent reinforcement steel.

Unprecedented logistical solutions

Not only incredible in scale, Atlantis is also extremely intricate in its design. So too was the logistical operation to facilitate the build. The site being 6km offshore, our logistics team successfully managed a highly complex operation involving road deliveries, handling and distribution, temporary utilities, communication systems, traffic management and site labour.

With a peak workforce of 10,000 personnel and two million hours per month being worked, the project was completed two months ahead of schedule. This was made possible by the skill and dedication of the Laing O'Rourke team and by our pioneering expertise in offsite manufacturing and preassembly.

• Outstanding health and safety record across 43 million hours worked
• 31-month delivery, two months ahead of schedule
• Full service delivery from the laing o'rourke group companies