Norway looks set to boast Europe’s first underwater restaurant. Two developers in the southernmost community of Lindesnes hope construction can begin later this year.
Their plans call for a restaurant that can seat 80 to 100 guests, with only a few centimeters of glass separating them from an underwater world. The developers have commissioned the Oslo-based international architecture firm Snøhetta, best known in Norway for their Opera House in Oslo, to design what they claim will be “an art installation in the water.”
Local newspaper Lindesnes reported that drawings for the restaurant, which developers Stig and Gaute Ubostad have been working on for two years, are now being considered by local authorities in Lindesnes. No objections from local residents have been received for the building that will descend from the area’s rocky coastline five meters deep into the sea.
“The biological diversity of the sea will form the basis for both the food experience and the space experience of being under water,” Snøhetta wrote in its application to local authorities. The Ubostads have also been working with various research institutions that could use part of the building for an underwater laboratory.
Lindesnes is best known for its lighthouse at Norway’s southernmost tip. The restaurant is planned for the Båly area of Lindesness, not far from the large Lindesnes Havhotell.
newsinenglish.no staff
