'World's largest' underwater restaurant set to star at luxury Maldives resort
By Kim Megson 14 Mar 2016
The restaurant is currently being fixed to steel pipes 5.8 metres below the surface of a lagoon Credit: Hurawalhi Island Resort & Spa
The developers of a forthcoming luxury resort in the Maldives claim that they have finished constructing the world’s largest underwater restaurant.
The 400-ton megastructure was created over 10 months in New Zealand and Japan and has now been transported to the resort in Lhaviyani Atoll, where it is being fixed to steel piles by divers 5.8 metres below a lagoon.
Guests at the Hurawalhi Island Resort & Spa will enter the restaurant via a spiral staircase from a hut on the jetty, which will contain the kitchen. They can then dine while fish and other sealife swim around their heads and explore the coral below.
“The restaurant has taken a fair amount of ambition, optimism and dedication, and it has taken our contractor even more ingenuity to build it exactly as imagined,” said the resort's general manager Patrick de Staercke. “The result is downright sensational and will be alone worth the trip here.”
Auckland underwater specialists M.J. Murphy were commissioned to design the project following their work on the first underwater restaurant in the Maldives; a smaller structure located at the Conrad Hilton resort.
The new restaurant, which is 18m x 5m in size, was built by New Zealand firm Fitzroy Engineering and Japanese acrylic contractors Nippura, who added the 190mm thick windows. The interiors have been designed by Stuart McKechnie Architects.
The five-star Hurawalh resort – which will feature villas built on stilts over the water – is in the final stages of development and will open later this year. The project is being funded by development company Champalars Holdings Pvt.
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'World's largest' underwater restaurant set to star at luxury Maldives resort
POSTED 14 Mar 2016 . BY Kim Megson
The restaurant is currently being fixed to steel pipes 5.8 metres below the surface of a lagoon Credit: Hurawalhi Island Resort & Spa
The developers of a forthcoming luxury resort in the Maldives claim that they have finished constructing the world’s largest underwater restaurant.
The 400-ton megastructure was created over 10 months in New Zealand and Japan and has now been transported to the resort in Lhaviyani Atoll, where it is being fixed to steel piles by divers 5.8 metres below a lagoon.
Guests at the Hurawalhi Island Resort & Spa will enter the restaurant via a spiral staircase from a hut on the jetty, which will contain the kitchen. They can then dine while fish and other sealife swim around their heads and explore the coral below.
“The restaurant has taken a fair amount of ambition, optimism and dedication, and it has taken our contractor even more ingenuity to build it exactly as imagined,” said the resort's general manager Patrick de Staercke. “The result is downright sensational and will be alone worth the trip here.”
Auckland underwater specialists M.J. Murphy were commissioned to design the project following their work on the first underwater restaurant in the Maldives; a smaller structure located at the Conrad Hilton resort.
The new restaurant, which is 18m x 5m in size, was built by New Zealand firm Fitzroy Engineering and Japanese acrylic contractors Nippura, who added the 190mm thick windows. The interiors have been designed by Stuart McKechnie Architects.
The five-star Hurawalh resort – which will feature villas built on stilts over the water – is in the final stages of development and will open later this year. The project is being funded by development company Champalars Holdings Pvt.
The 400-ton megastructure was created over 10 months in New Zealand and Japan and has now been transported to the resort in Lhaviyani Atoll Credit: Hurawalhi Island Resort & Spa
Auckland underwater design specialists M.J. Murphy were commissioned to design the project following their work on a smaller structure for another Maldives resort
Credit: Hurawalhi Island Resort & Spa
The luxury resort will open later this year, with at least 45 Ocean Pool Villas built on stilts over the water Credit: Hurawalhi Island Resort & Spa
The resort is being funded by development company Champalars Holdings Pvt Ltd
Credit: Hurawalhi Island Resort & Spa
A new study into how we will live, work and relax a century from now has predicted a
future where underwater bubble cities, drone-delivered mobile holiday homes and super
skyscrapers are the norm.
It can only be reached by taking a speedboat over a coral reef and descending a
dramatic three-tier staircase, and was originally opened in 2012 as the world's first
underwater nightclub. Now Poole Associates has redesigned Subsix, the underwater
venue located at the Per Aquum Niyama resort in the Maldives, to become a multi-
functional creative space which can be “transformed into whatever guests imagine it to
be”.
A luxury, multi-million dollar underwater resort will be built off the tropical island of Kuredhivaru in the
Maldives, instead of Dubai as originally planned.
The Global Wellness Institute (GWI) has released promising new research on the wellness real
estate market at its third-annual Wellness Real Estate & Communities Symposium in
Manhattan.
Paul Hawco, a seasoned figure in the international wellness industry, has assumed the role of
executive director – integrated wellbeing at independent, hospitality group Banyan Group.
The Ritz-Carlton Reynolds, Lake Oconee in the southeastern US state of Georgia is celebrating a
new milestone after unveiling its newly renovated 27,000sq ft destination spa.
Art’otel, Radisson’s contemporary art-inspired lifestyle hotel brand, has strengthened its
presence in London with a new hotel in Hoxton fusing art, design and hospitality.
Luxury hotel brand Aman, widely known for its strong spa focus, has just launched its much-
talked-about sister brand Janu in Tokyo – complete with a 4,000sq m urban wellness retreat.