OSLO, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Norway will get Europe's first underwater restaurant in 2019, newspaper Aftenposten reported Thursday.
The construction of a 592-square-meter subsea building shall begin during the winter of 2018 at a place just a few kilometers from the Lindesnes lighthouse at the southernmost tip of the Norwegian mainland.
This area is visited by almost 80,000 tourists each year, Aftenposten wrote.
The restaurant is to house 100 guests. Behind the project of 50 million kroner (6.24 million U.S. dollars) is the Lindesnes Havhotell, a four-star hotel in the same area.
"This is about creating a unique attraction, which enables us to attract guests from all over the world. We believe that the combination of exciting architecture, marine biology and gastronomy will make this a success," said Gaute Ubostad, one of the brothers that own the Lindsnes Havhotell.
The building is designed by Snohetta, a famous international architecture and design company.
"We think that it is always exciting to do things we have not tried before. Here we saw a unique opportunity to work with something that is in a completely different and special element," said Rune Grasdal, architect and project manager from Snohetta.
The restaurant will have the shape of an elongated pipe in coarse concrete, which from the shore descends steeply under the sea surface.
The concrete and 40 centimeter thick acrylic glass will make the underwater restaurant withstand pressure and shock from ocean, waves, weather and wind.
"One of the biggest challenges has been to find out how to build something like this. As a result, we build it on land in a dry dock. Then the building will be put a barge, shipped to where it will be located and then lowered down into the sea," Grasdal said.
"This is not a flashy building, but it is a signal building in a different way. It triggers something in people, not least because of its location adjustment. There is a concrete pipe that descends into the sea, eventually overgrown with seaweed," the architect said.
