The hotel rests on an artificial island constructed 280 metres offthe Dubai shore and 450m to its furthest point.

To make the foundation secure, its builders drove 230 40 metre long concrete piles into the sand. The foundation is held in place by the friction of the sand and the silt along the length of the piles. The surface of the island was created using large rocks which were circled with a concrete ‘honey-comb′ pattern armour which serves to protect the foundations from erosion.

Of the hotel's total five year construction period, it took 3 years to complete the island.

The following stages were involved in the island construction process:

• Temporary tube piles driven into sea bed
• Temporary sheet piles and tie rods driven into sea bed to support boundary rocks (see figure 1)
• Permanent boundary rock bunds deposited either side of sheet piles
• Hydraulic fill layers deposited between bunds to displace sea water and form island (see figure 2 with fill layers partially complete)
• Permanent concrete armour units placed around island to protect it from the waves
• 2m diameter 43m deep piles driven through island and sea bed below to stabilize structure (see figure 3)
• Island interior excavated and temporary sheet pile coffer dam inserted
• 2m thick concrete plug slab laid at base of island
• Reinforced concrete retaining wall built
• Basement floors created (see figure 4)