Archinect - News

Snøhetta's underwater restaurant, first of its kind in Europe, completes

2019-03-20T14:47:00-04:00

This week, Europe's first underwater restaurant (and the largest of its kind in the world) will open its doors to its first set of diners. Guests will be treated to a 15 to 18 course set menu featuring dishes that showoff locally sourced ingredients like sea arrow grass and Norwegian berries, as well as a lot of seafood.

Photo by Ivar Kvaal.

Under, which has the dual meaning in Norwegian of "below" and "wonder," has been designed by the international firm Snøhetta, who have had a recent string of buzzed-about architectural proposals amongst which the submerged dining room has stood out prominently.

Sitting 16 feet underwater, construction for the project was an ambitiously orchestrated affair. The restaurant had to be built on a barge near the coast and then towed 600 feet to its intended location. To submerge the reinforced concrete structure, developers filled it with 450 tons of water and secured it to the sea floor with 18 anchoring points. The rather delicate and exciting feat ...

World's first underwater residence opens in the Maldives

2018-11-12T15:21:00-05:00

The Conrad Maldives Rangali Island has opened the world's first-ever underwater hotel residence. More than just a room or a suite (this is the Maldives, after all, so luxury is the name of the game), the two-story villa is set more than 16 feet below the Indian Ocean. Its name is "Muraka," which means "coral" in the Maldives' local language Dhivehi.

Image: Conrad Maldives Rangali Island

With the cold and gloomy season quickly approaching in the Northern Hemisphere, many wish to escape to warmer, balmier settings. If the idea of sleeping under the water sounds like your kinda thing and a sweet $50,000 a night isn't too much of an obstacle, then a trip to the Maldives should be at the top of your itinerary. Conrad Hotels & Resorts recently completed a one-of-a-kind underwater residence, Muraka, that's now taking reservations (previously on Archinect).

Before you pawn away your grandma's Buick to scrape together the 50K, be advised though that a minimum stay of four nights is required.

View this post on Instagram Hold your breath and discover the beautiful harmony above and below the ocean. THE MURAKA, unlike anywhere else in the world. Check out the full video on IGTV. . . #TheMURAKA @alessia.zecchini @thomas.midulla @martin.kreuzer @americanexpress #ConradMaldives #AmexCenturion #AmexPlatinum #AmexLife
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Snøhetta's underwater restaurant is almost complete

2018-10-03T19:22:00-04:00

Five meters below the surface of the North Sea, near the southernmost tip of Norway, Europe's first underwater restaurant is nearing completion [...] The restaurant was built in about six months on a barge near the coast, then towed into position -- about 600 feet away -- with a heavy-lift vessel. To submerge the structure, containers filled with water were placed inside, before securing it to the sea floor with a total of 18 anchoring points.

In the southernmost tip of the Norwegian coastline, Snøhetta is in its final stages of completing the world's largest underwater restaurant. Submerged five meters below the North Sea, the restaurant appropriately named Under is preparing for its debut in Spring 2019. This 110ft-long structure made its big plunge and was secured to the sea floor in July 2018. This rather delicate and exciting feat was a major milestone for the team.

Under's overall design concept and location along the coastline underwent several revisions. After much discussion with developers and architects, it was decided that placing the restaurant in a much harsher location along the coast was intentional. Developed to withstand the tough winds and waves of the Norwegian coastline, Under's senior architect Rune Grasdal pointed out that the structure's slight curved form helps with wave impact.

Reservations for this unique dining experience will be available starting in April 201...

Microsoft’s undersea data center now has a webcam

2018-08-23T13:10:00-04:00

Microsoft has been experimenting with undersea data centers for years, and the current installation in the Orkney Islands will be deployed for around five years. There are 12 racks with 864 servers and 27.6 petabytes (27,600 terabytes) of storage [...] The data center is powered by a giant undersea cable that also connects it back to the internet, and the findings could mean the company will scale this project up to more powerful data centers in the future.

Microsoft has now installed a webcam by its undersea data center located off the shores of Scotland. The video stream is part of the company's efforts to observe environmental conditions of Project Natick, a research project aimed at determining the feasibility of subsea data centers powered by offshore renewable energy.

Check out the live video stream here.

Who owns real estate flooded from climate change?

2018-05-03T16:54:00-04:00

As seas rise and coasts wash away, who owns the land that goes underwater? Versions of that debate are taking place in courtrooms, legislatures, and government offices, raising the question of whether and when climate change justifies seizing private property. The stakes are enormous, affecting not just ownership of offshore mineral and fishing rights but also potentially trillions of dollars of coastal real estate.

Climate change has left many rules governing real estate ownership murky. As sea levels rise this especially affects coastal property and laws hinging on high-tide lines.

This underwater residence is currently being built in the Maldives

2018-05-03T14:34:00-04:00

A luxury Maldives resort is about to take the sleeping under-the-sea phenomenon to a whole new level. Conrad Maldives Rangali Island is building a $15 million two-story hotel villa, part of which will sit 16.4 feet below the surface of the Indian Ocean. The property, believed to be the world's first undersea residence, is under construction in the South Asian island country and is due to be completed in November.

Conrad Maldives Rangali Island

If you're traveling to the Maldives and just can't get enough of that crystal clear water, then you can soon even sleep beneath the Indian Ocean (and watch the fishies watching you): Conrad Hotels & Resorts, part of the Hilton group, announced plans for the, what it calls, first-of-its-kind underwater residence.

Conrad Maldives Rangali Island

"The undersea bedroom floor level sits five meters (16.4 feet) below sea level, providing uninterrupted views of the surrounding marine environment," the project description explains. "With the adoption of state-of-the-art technology, Muraka's distinct design is akin to Ithaa's [the nearby underwater restaurant] with the curved acrylic dome, which boasts 180-degree panoramic views of the wonders of the Indian Ocean's intricate marine life."

Snøhetta's much-discussed underwater restaurant breaks ground

2018-01-19T13:51:00-05:00

The announcement of Snøhetta's design plans for a below sea restaurant called "Under" was one of the most discussed projects last year. The project, with an expected completion date of March 2019, will be the world's largest underwater restaurant, and the first of its kind in Europe.

Courtesy of Under.

SubMar Group, an interdisciplinary group of companies, are heading the construction process for the project, which began this week. The company is responsible for all wave calculations and the marine operations in the project. They have dimensioned and planned the construction, the shipping and the subsea installation, as well as calculated what the construction must be able to withstand from the fierce natural forces.

Photo Credit: Aina Regina.

"The project is a nice mixture of madness and reason. You definitely have to be a bit fearless in order to create something this spectacular" said co-owner of Under, Gaute Ubostad.

For construction, the structure will b...

Under the sea: new Snøhetta-designed underwater restaurant in Norway will be Europe's first

2017-10-23T17:34:00-04:00

Snøhetta has certainly not forgotten its Scandinavian roots — after unveiling a number of smaller projects this year tailored to the Norwegian and Swedish terrain, like a boat tunnel, a treehouse hotel, and a readymade cabin, the architects today presented designs for "Under," Europe's first underwater restaurant located at the southernmost tip of the Norwegian coastline.

Snøhetta describes Under as a concrete periscope that guides up to 100 diners from the rocky tidepools near the entrance down to a champagne bar (marking the transition between the shoreline and Neptune's world) and further down to the restaurant with its large, 11x4-meter panoramic acrylic window gazing out to the seabed.

The volume of the building is simple and the exterior is mostly wrapped in a thick, rugged concrete shell designed to withstand harshest weather conditions and be a welcoming breeding ground for mussels and related marine life.

Whenever the ki...

Amazon's patent for "Aquatic Storage Facilities" could turn lakes into underwater warehouses

2017-07-13T15:53:00-04:00

American e-commerce giant Amazon has filed a patent with the US patents office for a system for storing and retrieving goods in an underwater facility. When an item is ordered for delivery, a sonic signal is transmitted from a buoy to the warehouse, which activates an air canister that inflates a balloon, allowing the chosen product to float to the surface where it would be dispatched to the customer.

Just last month, Amazon made headlines when it filed a patent for a drone tower design, essentially a multi-level fulfillment center for unmanned aerial vehicles in densely populated areas.

Now a recent Amazon patent for "Aquatic Storage Facilities" has surfaced, allowing us a glimpse into the engineers' quest to overcome limitations in storage capabilities, tackle inefficient use of space in vast fulfillment centers, and eliminate the extremely long distances staff members or robots have to cover when fulfilling orders.

United States Patent Office

"Because today's online marketplaces offer a wide variety of items to customers [...]," the patent description explains, "fulfillment centers now include increasingly large and complex facilities having expansive capabilities and high-technology accommodations for items, and feature storage areas as large as one million square feet or more. Therefore, in order to prepare and ship an order that includes a large number or different types o...

Carlo Ratti Associati designs a floating plaza at West Palm Beach letting visitors walk on (and beneath) water

2016-11-03T14:25:00-04:00

Using some of the same design techniques used for responsive air chambers in submarines, Carlo Ratti Associati has designed a floating plaza/mixed retail center that will float on and adapt to the water level depending on how many people are currently walking on it. The plaza, which is linked to land via a comprehensive masterplan on the coast of Lake Worth Lagoon, will also include housing (whose property values will hopefully never be underwater). The plaza will also feature "an organic restaurant with its own hydroponic cultivations," making it a potentially self-sustaining enterprise.

The inventive use of underwater vessel technology is, to director of the Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founding partner Carlo Ratti, an entirely new way of conceiving architecture. Ratti describes his project as "carving" into the water. He goes on to say that “with this project, we aim to reclaim West Palm Beach’s connection to the natural elements that surroun...

China plans to build an underwater "space station" in the South China Sea

2016-06-15T19:35:00-04:00

China is speeding up efforts to design and build a manned deep-sea platform to help it hunt for minerals in the South China Sea, one that may also serve a military purpose in the disputed waters. Such an oceanic “space station” would be located as much as 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) below the surface, according to a recent Science Ministry presentation viewed by Bloomberg.

For more news from the South China Sea, check out these links:

A luxury hotel 20,000 leagues under the sea

2016-01-08T18:16:00-05:00

Holidaymakers may soon be able to experience life under the sea by booking a stay at a futuristic hotel on the ocean floor. The Planet Ocean Underwater Hotel has received USA Patent and Trademark approval as the world's first underwater hotel - with Egypt, Malaysia, Hawaii and the Bahamas revealed as some of the designers' preferred locations. Guests would be treated to a one-of-a-kind panoramic view of sea life at a staggering 28ft (8.5 metres) below the surface.

Technically the hotel is a vessel, as the Daily Mail rightly points out, since it can navigate underwater and seek shelter if there's a hurricane. So basically, think of it as a cruise ship where you can't step out for a bit of fresh air.

"Rates will range between $3,000 to $6,000 for two underwater hotel guests AND two top-side guests who sleep on board the 63 foot catamaran support vessel," the Planet Ocean Underwater Hotel website states. "We are not accepting reservations until we begin fabrication. As soon as the $3,000,000 is received we will then begin accepting reservations."

Related:

Turkey says newly discovered Basilica in Lake İznik will become underwater museum

2015-04-10T13:38:00-04:00

The remains of a nearly 1,600-year-old basilica that was discovered at the beginning of last year under Lake İznik in the northwestern province of Bursa is now set to become an underwater museum. The underwater museum project, approved by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, will be carried out by the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality, the sponsor of the project. [...] The discovery of the basilica was named as one of top 10 discoveries of 2014 by the Ar-chaeological Institute of America.

Polish Scientists and Engineers Put A New Spin On Underwater Living

2013-02-07T19:43:00-05:00

Scientists and engineers from the Faculty of Ocean Engineering and Ship Technology at Gdansk University in Poland have teamed up with other Polish scientific and R&D institutions to come up with a landmark underwater hotel. The Water Discus Underwater Hotel, as it is called, may not be the first but plans for the Dubai venue call for the biggest site of its kind.