Ithaa

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Ithaa, which means pearl in Dhivehi, is the world's first-ever all glass undersea restaurant, secured five meters below sea level, at Rangali of Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa. The five- by nine-meter restaurant has a capacity of 14 people and is encased in a transparent acrylic roof offering 270° of panoramic view to its customers. The restaurant was designed and constructed by M.J. Murphy Ltd. - a design consultancy based in New Zealand - and was opened on April 15, 2005.

Ithaa's entrance is a spiral staircase in a thatched pavilion at the end of a jetty. The tsunami which followed the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake topped out at 0.3m below the staircase entrance, and caused no damage to the restaurant.

Conception and Making of Ithaa

In February 2004 M.J. Murphy Ltd. was approached by Crown Company in the Maldives to make a unique underwater restaurant. The Crown Company, the owner of Rangali Island, leases the island to Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa. Initially Crown envisioned the underwater restaurant with straight walls and glass windows. Later they came to favor Mike Murphy's (of M.J. Murphy Ltd.) acrylic tunnel, designed for the Kuala Lumpur National Science Centre, also the world’s largest aquarium tunnel.

Work on technical design and drawing for Ithaa started in March 2004. Murphy initially planned to build the structure on the beach of Rangali and then winch it into the water. However, foreseeing technical challenges and limited resources in building a structure of 175 tonnes in the Maldives, as well as quality control problems, it was later decided to construct in Singapore. Two months later, in May 2004, its construction began in Singapore. In October 2004 the construction work was completed, including installation of five-meter-wide acrylic arches, air conditioning ducts, and electrical ducts.

On November 1, 2004, Ithaa was lifted onto an ocean-going barge to be transported to the Maldives. It took 16 days to reach its destination. At this stage Ithaa weighed some 175 tonnes.

On November 19, 2004 Ithaa was "sunk" with the help of 85 tonnes of sand ballast loaded into its belly. It was precisely maneuvered onto four steel piles which had been vibro-hammered four to five meters into the seabed. It was then secured to the steel piles with concrete.

The estimated life span of the restaurant is 20 years.

Gallery

Image:Ithaa1.jpg Image:Ithaa2.jpg Image:Ithaa sinking 1.jpg Image:Ithaa sinking 2.jpg

External links

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