Dubai’s Damac is working with a Canadian company on bringing an outdoor synthetic ice rink, made out of plastic, to the Middle Eastern desert of the UAE in three years, an official has said.
“[It] is an outdoor ice rink made of materials that are exactly treated as though they were ice,” Ziad El Chaar, managing director of Damac Properties told Construction Week. “This will be ready in three years’ time.”
The synthetic rink will be part of Damac’s Akoya development project, which includes villas and mid-rise and high-rise apartments.
“We haven’t placed the order, we are still in discussion with a Calgary company,” he added.
“We have quotation, but we haven’t yet got to the final [stages] – it is too early to say how much it will cost.”
El Chaar described the fake rink as “durable” and said it was much easier to maintain, compared to an actual ice rink.
“This is why you see this in many universities in Canada – it is less costly to maintain and it doesn’t use energy to freeze the water.
“You can polish the rink to be as slippery as an ice rink, but you can install it outside, in the desert.”
The rink has the exact shape and feel of a real rink, and “you can [even] put on your ice skates on.”
The president and owner of a Canadian synthetic rink company, SmartRink, Tim Oldfield, had told Canada-basedCBC News it costs about $12.50 (AED46) per square foot for the synthetic ice panels, which fit together like a puzzle of a rink.
Source: Arabian Bussiness
