The Dream Hotel

Introduction: The process of building a hotel is never easy. Building a hotel like the Burj Al Arab would seem an almost impossible task given the fact that the man behind the whole idea wanted a building that would cross all boundaries be it in terms of luxury, size and other factors to become the world’s first 7 star hotel. So what were some of the principles applied when building this magnificent building? Vision

Definition – Unusual competence in discernment or perception; intelligent foresight: a leader of vision.

Other definitions include:
2. The manner in which one sees or conceives of something.
3. A mental image produced by the imagination.
4. The mystical experience of seeing as if with the eyes the supernatural or a supernatural being. 5. A person or thing of extraordinary beauty.
In building this particular hotel, the Sheikh has shown vision as have the architects because they have thought of an idea that has never ever been done before. i.e. a hotel so luxurious in every way possible such that it stands out from all the other existing hotels in every aspect, design, looks, facilities, comfort, luxury, world’s tallest hotel, world class accommodation and facilities, most technologically advanced meeting and conference facilities available.

Vision is what enables us from time to time to keep working towards achieving both our long-term and short-term goals, be it getting a certain grade, getting a well paying job or even a stable relationship that would eventually lead to a successful marriage. This therefore renders vision very applicable to our day to day lives. Vision can help us achieve that which we can only see in our dreams and turn it into reality. The millionaires, the hunger to gain stardom and become popular or famous all start with having a vision!
Patience

Definition – The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. The whole team involved in building this magnificent hotel has shown a lot of patience all through the 5 years at various points which include: 1- During the interior decorating which required the building to be cooled down and the process was going to take almost a year. 2- While doing the interior some of the exotic finishing touches were extremely delicate for instance the wood finish and gold leaf tiling as well as the marble which was needed to be put right at the end and this was quite complicated. 3- Patience was shown when testing the exoskeleton against the wind test and climatic conditions to see if it would manage to hold up or not. 4- Patience shown by the architect who moved from his original place of living and went to stay in Dubai for all the 5 years and more that it took to construct the Burj Al Arab. Application in daily life

Patience is a well known virtue but one that is hardly put into practice. More often than not, we would always expect others to be patient with us but we do not practice patience with others. Patience is mainly seen during the group work as the people learn to appreciate others as well as building team work among themselves. It takes some time to get used to someone’s behavior as well as character, patience thus comes in handy in such situations.

Innovation & Creativity
Definition – Innovation is to introduce something new, make changes. It involves taking a working product or process and adding something new to it. When a change is made to a process to make it work better or fulfills a different need it is innovating on what already exists. Creativity on the other hand is when you cause something to come into being or when relating a concept to a particular body of knowledge. It is not something that is ordered but it relies on intrinsic motivation, on people being enthusiastic, inspired and knowledgeable. In building this hotel, innovation and creativity have been taken to new heights i.e. When u consider why this hotel is a stand out building form the rest of the other buildings the
following factors are key considerations: 1- Shape of hotel resembles a sail

2- Shipping history
3- Dubai monument
4- Built on a Private Island
5- Tallest hotel in the world
Other factors include:
1- Underwater restaurant only accessible by submarine
2- Helicopter landing pad
3- Sky view restaurant
Hotel built separately on an artificial island and stands on the sea resembling a huge boat with a mast as a sail. Innovation is shown in the sense that the artificial island was built of sand and ordinary sand cannot sustain a lot of weight unlike the usual concrete support, hence support was gained by use of columns holding up the building which relied on friction. Thick glass fiber fabric with a Teflon coat to prevent dust from sticking to the windows Diagonal trusses on the side of the hotel each weighing as much as 20 double decker buses built 15 km away from actual site and brought in one piece on huge 80 wheel lorries which were specially imported from South Africa. Trivia – If man was to build this building himself, it would take an approximated 8000 years. Interior features, marble and 24 carat gold leaf designs.

Steel structure on the exterior was designed to withstand a wind load of 9Kpa Lighting system is one of a kind with the exterior lit by 150 colors changing highlighted by 90 data flash strobes. The Tower changes from white to multicolor as the evening progresses The hotel has been named in the Guinness book of world records 2006 – as the most luxurious hotel in the world. Application in daily life

Employees today are looking for graduates who are highly innovative. Innovation is reliant on critical thinking as well as creative thinking skills taught in the general courses at U.S.I.U. While searching for employment, the graduate will therefore have an upper hand compared to
others. Your ability to think creatively will differentiate from the millions of other people just like you and you will find yourself getting further in life simply because you have that extra thing in you that makes you special and unique as compared to the other people. Planning

Definitions
1. A scheme, program, or method worked out beforehand for the accomplishment of an objective: a plan of attack. 2. A proposed or tentative project or course of action.
3. A systematic arrangement of elements or important parts; a configuration or outline. 4. A drawing or diagram made to scale showing the structure or arrangement of something. In the case of this hotel it involved:

1- Getting the right team to build it
2- The right material or product
3- The cost
4- Objective or need to build… tourism
5- Marketing
6- What will it bring to us? Monetary benefits from tourism, global recognition etc. Application in daily life – Planning is thus very important in daily life in the same way everything was done strategically during the construction of Burj Al Arab, planning can as well be applied in our day to day lives. This can be achieved by setting up schedules by which we live by i.e. what time we wake up, what activities we plan to have done by the end of the day or even how we spend our money daily, by planning this and many other things we can be sure to have secured a better life in the future. Confidence

Definitions
1- The feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something. 2- The state of feeling certain about the truth of something.

While building the Burj, the Sheikh had confidence in the team he chose for the job. The team comprised of very young architects who had never before done such a daunting task and hence he showed that he was confident about
them despite the fact that they were inexperienced and expected them to deliver. The architects in return had to be confident of what they had to do especially the chief architect since the rest were following his instructions and he needed to make them believe in him. Also the constructors who did the job of putting the whole thing into reality from a piece of paper or sketch deserve all praise and the idea of making a separate island for the building itself needed confidence as well both in terms of constructing and funding. The interior decorator Ms Kuan Chew and her entire team had to do something that had never before been seen in any other hotel and this required a lot of confidence. Also the interior atrium which initially was intended to be left the way it was as plain white was not accepted by the Sheikh who thought it was just too plain and simple and asked Kuan to do something about it which she showed confidence and did by painting the atrium in 7 colors of the rainbow and lit every sector accordingly so that it brought forth a magnificent colorful and lighted finish. Application in daily life – It is extremely important to be confident in what we do and how we live our lives. Confidence helps us make decisions which we would otherwise be hesitant to make and take some important steps in our lives or make difficult choices. Without confidence we would be unable to accomplish our goals and always rely on other people to make decisions for us which may end up being against our wishes hence resulting in failure of achievement and inability to become successful in life. We also show confidence when we are faced with a situation of choosing between 2 or more difficult options. If we make a choice based on what we are confident in then we will be happy with that choice and not regret on making it.

Conclusion – At the end of it all, the hotel became a major success and despite all the challenges and problems along with the overwhelming odds that were stacked up against the team behind the creation of this amazing hotel. This only shows us that with the right mind set and correct approach as well as the above mentioned attributes, we can achieve even the impossible and live our dreams. We can only learn and gain from the phrase: If you can dream it…. then you can live it!