Snøhetta designs Under, Europe’s first underwater restaurant

It won’t be not the only one, but it is certainly Europe’s first underwater restaurant. Its name is Under, but you won’t need to swim to visit it! The new project, which was recently presented, is by Norwegian studio Snøhetta and the location chosen is Båly, a village at the Southern tip of the Norwegian coast.

The name plays on the dual meaning of the word "under", which in Norwegian also means "wonder".
“Wonder” is in fact the first emotion that “Under” provokes, in a virtual visit made possible by the splendid renderings created by MIR. The restaurant is part of a larger project and will also be a marine life research centre that will welcome biologists and those studying marine animal behaviour. Exploiting the topography of the rocky Norwegian coast, Snøhetta has designed a monolithic building that will rest gently on the sea bed, five metres under the surface. Its design and dimensions will resist the difficult underwater conditions and Under will have large windows to observe the changing marine environment in different seasons and weather conditions. Outside, underwater, the concrete structure will have a rough surface offering a place that marine molluscs will quickly grow on, to become part of the coastline. On dry land guests will follow a path with information on marine biodiversity and the Norwegian coast, down to the entry ramp of the restaurant. The entrance, with the cloakroom area, is located at the point in which the sea ‘swallows’ the building, and through the bar guests can access a third level, made up of a restaurant with a large panoramic window where they can observe the sea bed.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Architects: Snøhetta https://snohetta.com/
Place: Båly, Norway
Images courtesy of Snøhetta, copyright MIR and Snøhetta

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