A hotel room with views on high rotate

The water wheel hotel would be able to be dismantled and moved to other locations.

French architects are planning to build a "water wheel hotel" on the banks of the Seine, which resembles the London Eye but with "room capsules" that would rotate constantly.

The "wheel hotel" will turn constantly at a slow speed, powered by batteries charged by the current of the river and making a complete rotation every half-hour. The views from its 19 rooms will change as the 3.5m cylindrical pods move.

Architects Maxime Barbier, 41, and Luc Delamain, 53, from the firm SCAU, are in discussion with officials in Paris and Bordeaux. "They're interested in the project but there are a lot of formalities first, especially in Paris," Barbier said. "In Bordeaux they're very enthusiastic and there's less red tape."

Like the Eiffel Tower, which was to have been dismantled after the Universal Exhibition of 1889, the wheel hotel is not intended to be a permanent structure. "It is made of wood and it will take only four days to assemble or dismantle it, so it could be transported by barge and re-erected elsewhere on the river," Barbier said.

The barge, moored alongside the wheel, would serve as a bar and restaurant, where guests could wait for their room pod to descend to entry level. "They would never have to wait longer than 30 minutes to enter or leave," according to Barbier.

"Each room will have a toilet and bathroom, with a tank under the floor to collect waste water, which will be emptied by a pump every morning, but water usage will be limited to 30 litres a day," he said.

Paris officials confirmed that the plan was under consideration but said it would not be allowed to remain at any one site for longer than six months under French regulations for temporary structures.

"It will be cheap to make, costing only a few million euros at most, and the idea is to put it up temporarily on the banks of rivers in big cities, preferably opposite exceptional monuments like the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben," Barbier said.

He added that the wheel hotel was in accord with plans to turn sections of the banks of the Seine into pedestrian areas as Paris authorities seek to curb pollution from traffic and bring more activities to the riverside.

To allow easy access for emergency services, the wheel will measure only 30m in diameter, a quarter the size of the London Eye but about 5m taller than the average central Paris building.

The pods will be soundproofed and will have water mist fire prevention systems similar to those used in Eurostar trains.

A night in the wheel is to cost about 300 ($490).

Telegraph Group Ltd