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The Accidental Vagina: Design for Qatar's first 2022 World Cup stadium released

Nzherald.co.nz - Before now, the majority of discussions surrounding Qatar's successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup have been surrounding the heat. There's even been talk of switching the summer tournament to winter months.

However, now that a virtual rendering of the first new purpose-built stadium has been released, the debate is not about whether the fully air conditioned pitch will solve the heat problem.

Rather a number of commentators and tweeters have pointed to the fact that the proposed Al-Wakrah stadium looks very much like a vagina.

Yes, the conservative country has designed what many believe appears to be a giant ode to women's private parts.

This is not what the architects intended. Instead, the design is supposed to resemble the sails of a dhow boat which is traditionally used for pearl fishing by Qataris.

Aecom, the firm that won the Al Wakrah contract along with Zaha Hadid Architects said: "Inspired by the dhow boat that carried generations of local fishermen and pearl divers, the stadium weaves together Qatar's past with its progressive vision for the future.

"Sustainable materials and practices will be used throughout the stadium and the pitch and spectator stands will be cooled to a perfect temperature for football."

Hassan al-Thawadi, the general secretary of Qatar's 2022 committee said: "Al-Wakrah is the first of six stadiums already in the latter stages of the design process, our committee has issued 10 major tenders to the market encompassing project and design managers and stadium-operation consultants."

The stadium, with a capacity of 40,000 people, would be completed by 2018, he said, but declined to comment on the cost.

As well as discussions surrounding the heat, Qatar as also been hit by allegations of migrant construction worker exploitation, as well as accusations of corruption over the voting procedure to win the bid, both of which officials have denied.

World's Largest Bridge to Stretch 40 Km Long

Construction on what would become the world's longest marine causeway, connecting Qatar and Bahrain, is due to begin next year, and what a project it is: We're talking about a bridge more than 40 km long, costing around $3 billion.

Somewhat adorably named the Qatar-Bahrain Friendship Causeway, this massive bridge is expected to take around 4.5 years to complete and cost somewhere between $2.3 and $3 billion, but should be a great help for travel between Qatar and Bahrain. The trip currently takes more than four hours and will be reduced to 30 minutes on the bridge, and those in charge expect 10,000 to 20,000 vehicles per day to use it.

Oil Rigs Become Luxury Hotels

What do you do with 4,000 decommissioned oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico? Instead of blowing them up—costing millions and killing aquatic life—Morris Architects' Hotelier At Sea project turns them into Dubai-esque luxury hotels.

According to BldgBlog, approximately 4,000 oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico will be decommissioned within the next century. Morris proposed to convert this space into exclusive, self-sufficient eco-friendly, high-end resort islands off the Gulf of Mexico, dubbing it their very own American Dubai, as you can tell from the yacht parking lot seen in the picture.

Currently, the method of removing these sorts of oil rigs would be to blow them up, which would cost millions of dollars and would kill a ton of sea life in the process. With a deck of each oil rig at 20,000 square feet, that creates about 80 million square feet of usable space. One reason this proposal is cheaper than blasting is that the rooms themselves are efficiently shipped out on big tankers and installed by stacking and sliding open, Transformers-style.