Sunlight is filtering through the turquoise waters, shimmering with the waves. Jellyfish float in graceful downwards zigzags like translucent baubles. Darting from left to right among clumps of swaying kelp are fishes speckled with bronze and streaked with silver.
This isn’t a scene from the tropics – it’s southern Norway, and it’s the view from a recently opened underwater restaurant, Under, that’s finding a new way to educate people on the importance of local marine life.
The restaurant is a 34-metre long structure semi-submerged in the ocean, designed by Oslo architecture firm Snøhetta. It was only installed last year, but is already being claimed by marine life: seaweed is growing on the exterior, and sea snails and barnacles stick to the windows.
According to architect Andreas Nygaard, this was deliberate. The rough concrete was chosen to encourage marine life to grow on it, while the rugged coastline highlights the sea’s “drama”.
“We call the whole thing an eye into the coastal ecosystem,” says Trond Rafoss, an associate professor at Agder University and the in-house marine biologist. “The biodiversity of cold waters is not well known. We think the more people gain knowledge of marine life, the more they will look after our oceans.”
Rafoss thinks drawing attention to the “colourfulness” of the northern seas will motivate the public to understand the ways they are affected by climate change. He cites the leaching of agricultural chemicals into the ocean, overproduction of food on land, and how CO2 is causing ocean acidification. “But it can be reversed,” he says.
The restaurant is vital for Rafoss’s research. It receives funding from the Norwegian government as an “underwater laboratory”, and Rafoss brings his master’s students in marine ecology regularly to find inspiration for research topics. So far research has looked at how to restore marine ecosystems in harbour areas, along with experimental studies on the extent to which wrasse fish are capable of learning.
Without collaborating with a private business, the university couldn’t have funded such a resource. The relationship has also enabled Rafoss to secure funding from the Norwegian government, which paid for half of the project. “More and more [research funds are] tied to the impact on society and business,” he says.
Rafoss plans to use the restaurant as part of an interdisciplinary research project into ways of measuring how much people can learn about science when they go on holiday or engage in an educational leisure activity. He thinks experiences can teach far more than written texts.
“When people go on holiday they want to learn something new in an enjoyable way,” he says. “We’re interested in finding out about the type of experiences that increase knowledge of natural sciences among the public.”
Instead of providing written explanations in the restaurant, he trains the waiters to inform diners about what they’re seeing. While some visitors have initially complained about poor visibility and dirty water, the restaurant’s team have been able to explain that the cloudy views are because springtime is growing season for marine life.
Of course, this is not an experience accessible to everyone: there’s only one option for the menu, and it costs £199. But Stig Ubostad, one of the owners, sees it as a “bucket list” destination. Spending four hours tasting 18 courses of carefully curated seafood with an unparalleled view of life under the sea is undeniably a unique experience, albeit one that few can afford.
The educational mission extends to the restaurant’s menu. “We want to drag everything from here into the kitchen and show the variety of what we have here in the southern part of Norway,” says the head chef, Nicolai Ellitsgaard. There’s a focus on sustainability, using all the parts of the fish, underappreciated species, and bycatch.
Ubostad stresses that the research is a core part of the business. “Under will be much more than just a restaurant,” he says. “We want to foster curiosity for the sea.”
There are cheaper ways for the public to engage with the restaurant’s window into marine life than booking a table. A camera will soon be set up online so people can watch, take snaps of new species they spot, and provide names and times as a “citizen science” project.
After being validated by a scientist, these images will be fed into a machine learning algorithm, which will teach the camera how to recognise different marine life. It’s hoped that this experimental technology will be rolled out across the coast to monitor population levels.
Heidi Pettersvold Nygaard, an interior architect at Snøhetta, says the building’s unusual structure was designed to be accessible to everyone. “You can stroll along the coastline and be part of the experience,” she says. “You can see how it works and sits in the landscape.”
A new neighbouring public engagement centre will also be set up this year. Rafoss is still researching how best to make visitors learn, and specifically how to engage young people. One option they’re trialling is drone cameras on the seabed. “Young people want things in real-time, they want to explore on their own,” he says. “We hope [the centre] will attract young scientists to get more involved in research into marine ecosystems.”
He believes the collaboration could work elsewhere. He envisions “more people involved in fighting for biodiversity”, thanks to its research and education work. “The key thing for me is that this restaurant concept can’t work without vibrant nature,” he says. “If you can connect business with a clean environment, that’s the main benefit I see of all the hours I’ve spent here over the last five years.”
Rachel Hall’s visit to Norway was supported by the Norwegian embassy in London, which had no say in the content of this article
