Water is an essential commodity, especially in the arid Gulf states where it surpasses oil in liter-to-liter price comparisons. Now a Danish designer has pushed the wet stuff into the luxury goods category, proposing to hawk his H2O in crystal water bottles shaped like the tallest tower in the world, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.
Tayseer Hadi, an inventor from Denmark, claims inspiration first struck while he was dining at The Dubai Mall in 2013. He told the Khaleej Times, “I was sitting in a restaurant wondering why we’re drinking Voss water, Evian water. Why doesn’t Dubai have a water that represents Dubai?” That’s when the light bulb went off, and he decided to create a local water brand bottled in the shape of the Burj Khalifa.
Light bulbs will also go off in the bottles. Each container, crafted of solid K9 crystal, will have LED lights embedded in its base which will wash the half-meter-high bottle in a blue glow. Tall as they are, they won’t quench much thirst – the bottles only hold only 750ml of water. And at $190 per unit, the price tag is as tall as the tower.
The designer says it took three years to find a manufacturer willing to produce a prototype. He hopes to introduce the line ahead of Dubai’s Expo 2020, kicking off sales at a yet-to-be-scheduled charity auction offering bespoke bottles made of diamond-studded platinum and pure gold. He plans to donate 2.5 percent of proceeds to his self-founded charity, Emirates Noble Palms.
Last February, UAE economists declared that fluctuations in oil prices meant it was officially cheaper to buy a liter of petrol than a liter of water, a fact that holds true in many Gulf states.
