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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... View full entry
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.
— CNN Travel
Image: Conrad Maldives Rangali IslandWith 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... View full entry
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. — CNN
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... View full entry
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. — theverge.com
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... View full entry
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. — bloomberg.com
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. View full entry
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.
— CNN Travel
Conrad Maldives Rangali IslandIf 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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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.
— globalconstructionreview.com
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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.
— Bloomberg
For more news from the South China Sea, check out these links:China is busy building islands in the South China SeaNew satellite images show progress in China's island-building projectChina plans to build a fleet of floating nuclear power plants View full entry
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.
— Daily Mail
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... View full entry
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.
— hurriyetdailynews.com
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.
— DesignBuild Source
