Holidaymakers livid as upside-down hotel that inspired Star Wars faces demolition

Demolition work is set to begin on Hotel du Lac, in Tunis, Tunisia, which has led to outcry and opposition from citizens, architects, and heritage experts in the North African country

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Destruction work is set to begin on an iconic brutalist hotel.

News of the imminent doom of the Hotel du Lac, in Tunis, Tunisia, has led to outcry and opposition from citizens, architects, and heritage experts in the North African country.

The 1973 work of Italian architect Raffaele Contigiani is considered a masterpiece of Brutalism, which is an architectural style that took form in the mid-20th century and uses industrial materials, scale and ideas of functionality.

The Hotel du Lac was commissioned by Tunisia's first president, Habib Bourguiba, after the country first became independent from France, in recognition of a tourism boom. As such, the inverted pyramid structure has become an important and recognisable symbol in Tunisia.

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"The hotel is a unique witness to a certain age," Mohamed Zitouni, a Tunis-based architect involved in the preservation campaign, told the BBC several years ago. "It's one of the rare buildings after Tunisian independence that shows vision and maturity."

In its pomp, the 416-room hotel was a glitzy and attractive holiday spot, attracting stars including James Brown and reportedly inspiring designers for Star Wars who modelled a spaceship off of it.

Fans of George Lucas' space opera may see a similarity between its unusual shape and that of the Sandcrawler.

Sadly, the good times came to an end for Hotel du Lac, which closed in 2000 after years of reported mismanagement. In 2011, former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali sold the property to the Libyan government-owned investment fund Lafico, CNN reported.

Plans to refurbish the hotel were tabled but never realised, leaving it to stand empty for the past quarter of a century.

The decision to demolish Hotel du Lac was officially confirmed to AFP at the end of August by Hadi Alfitory, director of the Libyan public investment fund Lafico. He said that the building had become "a ruin" and should be demolished. Mr Alfitory said he had obtained all the necessary permits from Tunisian authorities for the demolition, the Middle East Eye reported.

The publication reports that a $150m (£110m) shopping centre and a new 20-storey luxury hotel that will retain the same concept and form as the old building will be constructed in its place.

A petition to save the hotel – which seems to have been launched in vain – has received more than 3,000 signatures.

"The City of Tunis would be remiss to demolish this symbolic structure. With this petition, we call on the Mayor of Tunis to step in immediately and STOP any plans for its DEMOLITION. The City must come to see the opportunity that repurposing the space holds – maybe as a museum, an innovation space, or a conference center – the location could literally not be more strategic," the description of the petition reads.

"In neglecting our rich modern and ancient history, we aren't just losing our identity, but we are also losing economic opportunity."