The New, New
Atlantis
The project you want to sink
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Atlantis, in Plato’s account, was a naval power lying off the Pillars of Hercules that sank
into the Atlantic Ocean. Plato’s description went on to inspire other utopian works like
Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis, not to mention modern science fiction, comic books and
films, such as Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and the baddy’s
underwater base in the James Bond movie ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’. Justin Ratcliffe
explains here the concept of a designer who wants superyacht owners to look up at
– not just across – the sea’s surface from their bedroom window, a concept that seems
to be a lot like those fantasy films and comic books.
It was underwater scenes like these (and
Ursula Andress emerging from the sea in
a skimpy bikini in ‘Dr No’) that inspired a
teenage Michael Schütte to go on to study
naval architecture and make underwater
habitats his field of specialisation.
“On a planet whose surface is 70 per
cent water it’s only a matter of time before
significant portions of our population will
be living on or in the water”, said Schütte
when we met at the Abu Dhabi Yacht Show
in March. “This isn’t science fiction or an
excerpt from a Man From Atlantis comic
book – this is the hard reality of increasing
populations allied to diminishing landbased resources and space.” Despite his
assurances to the contrary, this concept
does sound fantastical. Not because it can’t
be done, but because it simply hasn’t been
done to date – or rather not in any way
that would convince us to live underwater
ourselves.
While the teenage Schütte was watching
Bond movies, the US Navy was
experimenting with Sealab, a series of
three underwater habitats that explored the
notion of human beings living and working
at the bottom of the ocean for long periods
of time. Jacques Cousteau had already
established Conshelf I (short for Continental
Shelf Station) in shallow water off Marseilles.
Towards the end of the decade the Tektite
underwater habitat was established with
funding from NASA off the US Virgin Islands
and the team set a new record for saturated
diving of 58 days. In the 1970s, La Chalupa
research lab was the largest and most
technologically advanced underwater habitat
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of its time. Its American developer, Ian Koblick of the Marine Resources
Development Foundation, later turned the base into an underwater hotel
dubbed (rather uninspiringly) Jules Underwater Lodge and plonked it down
in a few feet of murky water off Key Largo in Florida.
In the mid ’90s I actually spent a night in Jules Underwater Lodge and can
personally vouch that it was about as comfortable and cosy as sleeping
in a freight container, only with portholes. “This has been the problem to
date”, says Schütte. “The clever bit, if I can flatter our efforts, is finding a
way of doing it in a non-controlled situation and making it not only liveable
but luxurious, rather than something that smells slightly of damp.”
At this point it is worth taking a closer look at Michael Schütte’s
professional credentials. Canadian by birth, he is CEO of Brilliant Boats
and in-house consultant to Sunrise Yachts in Antalya; he has broad
experience in the design and development of superyachts, high-speed
vessels, catamarans and speciality structures. He is also resident naval
architect at US Submarines and, as Vice-President of engineering at US
Submarine Structures, was responsible for the engineering behind the
Poseidon Undersea Resort and the world’s first undersea residence,
the H2OME. An evolution of a concept originally developed for Michael
Eisner, the former CEO of Walt Disney, the Poseidon project consists of
SPECIAL REPORT – UNDERWATER HOUSE
24 undersea hotel suites and apartments covering 51m2, anchored on the
Fijian ocean floor 12 metres beneath the surface. Although the hotel will
have a fleet of small submarines, the structure is connected to the surface
by elevators and air shafts. Unfortunately, the project stalled when its US
backers pulled out with the onset of the financial crisis. But with design
and engineering 95 per cent completed, it is ready to get under way again
at relatively short notice.
The H2OME project is the more intriguing as it draws on much of the
technical know-how gleaned from the Poseidon Undersea Resort, which
has then been applied to designing a private underwater home at a cost
more conducive to the current economic climate. “The idea came about
after sitting in a hot tub drinking too much Chardonnay with Bruce Jones
[the founder of US Submarines – Ed]”, recalls Schütte. “He suggested
coming up with a residential spin-off and we couldn’t think of a good
enough reason not to.”
The whole structure is basically a variable displacement ‘hull’ that is floated
to its final destination and ballasted for a slow descent in 10–18 metres
of water. Depending on the bottom topography, it is tethered or mated to
concrete piles driven into the sea bed. Designed to be operated at a an
internal pressure of one atmosphere (100kPa), the first of these is being
designed for a client who will locate the H2OME off a private island in Belize
with umbilical connections to the shore for mains electricity supply, water
and sewage treatment. But an alternative version features an X-shaped
floating jetty that serves as a docking station, heli-deck, spa and al fresco
dining area, in addition to housing technical
pods for gensets and watermakers, not
unlike an engine room aboard a yacht, with a
combined lift shaft and stairwell connecting
the two components. And this is where
the design starts to look less like a comic
book storyline and more like a study in naval
engineering – albeit an unconventional one.
“None of it is rocket science”, says Schütte.
“The main issues are the same as those we
have to deal with every day in the yachting
industry and the on-board systems are like
any large yacht. It’s basically a yacht that
doesn’t move or a yacht that is supposed to
be sunk.”
Like any modern-yacht design (yet unlike its
Sealab-style precursors) panoramic visibility
is a key feature of the H2OME. The habitat
is made of completely transparent convex
acrylic panels, similar to those used in
walk-though aquariums, mounted on a steel
framework. Although much more expensive,
cell cast acrylic has numerous advantages
over glass. It is many times stronger, more
impact resistant and only half as heavy.
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Particularly relevant to its application
in underwater habitats is that with a
transparency of 93 per cent and a refractive
index almost identical to that of seawater,
it is the clearest material commercially
available. Moreover, as chemical welding at
the molecular level actually ‘melts’ panels
into one piece of solid material, there are no
visible seams.
One more factor in acrylic’s favour is that it
is a good insulator; combined with constant
sea temperatures at 10 metres of around
24°C in tropical waters, it means that the AC
requirements of the habitat are minimal and
could be powered by a solar-driven pump
on the surface. Schütte has designed the
acrylic windows to a safety factor of 6 for
an overall thickness of up to 100mm (25mm
is already bullet proof). There are only three
manufacturers worldwide able to cast the
acrylic to that kind of thickness and then
thermo-form it into convex shapes. The
curve adds strength under pressure, but
precision engineering is required because
even at relatively shallow depths the pressure
can cause deflection and the windows start
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behaving like lenses and distort the view. And to keep all that acrylic free of
algae and other marine organisms, Schütte has developed a high-pressure
washing device that creeps over the exterior surface.
H2OME is even designed to be built like a yacht with steel components,
acrylic panel viewports and interior all being produced concurrently. 3D
files provide millimetre-perfect construction data for each subcontractor to
confidently proceed in parallel. All the components are pre-designed with
appropriate clearances to make sure that there is no conflict on site when
it comes to installation. Components are then delivered to the construction
dry dock where final assembly and ‘sea trials’ take place. With interior
design by Karine Rousseau, the likely outfitters would be Pino Meroni
Yacht Interiors in Dubai.
Like any of Meroni’s superyacht projects, each room is constructed in their
DIP facility using templates taken from the master construction model.
Once completed and signed off, it is then disassembled and packed for
shipment to the construction site, where it is then reassembled by the same
team that built it at the factory. The finished structure is then floated out of
the dry dock and picked up by a semi-submersible ship that transports the
H2OME to its destination site. In this way, Schütte believes the undersea
residence can be available for use within 48 hours of delivery to the site.
Although its designer likens the H2OME to a yacht designed to be sunk, I
put it to him that the classification societies may not like the analogy much.
Schütte, however, is unfazed. “We took into consideration a number of
industry standards when designing the Poseidon project”, he begins.
SPECIAL REPORT – UNDERWATER HOUSE
“The California public spaces code is the
most stringent fire code and we’ve used
that. We referred to PVHO guidelines for
acrylic windows aboard pressure vessels
designed for human occupation and applied
to submarines. We consulted Lloyd’s
standards with regard to steel wastage
on large ships for calculating the 25-year
life span of the steel framework. And
we followed the MCA guidelines for fire
regulations and escape routes, which was
more applicable to the commercial Poseidon
project than the residential version.”
On the subject of fire regs and escape
routes, I asked Schütte to explain how
the habitat is evacuated in an emergency.
“Running down the same central column as
the lift there is a spiral stairway”, he explains.
“This shaft is like a bilge tank and water
can be pumped out, but if you want further
redundancy we can install a second stairway
in a double helix with separate watertight
doors at each end.” And in the event of
natural disasters such as hurricanes or
even a tsunami? “First of all, the structure is
designed for sheltered waters such as coral
lagoons, fjords or even lakes”, he points
out. “The jetties can be sacrificed, but in the
event of a tsunami the amount of water that
could breach the central column is ultimately
limited by the wave height and period. In
a worst-case scenario, if the ground floor
floods there is always the mezzanine floor.
Believe me, when the tsunami hits, this is
where you want to be!”
In terms of the layout of the 340m2 of interior
space, the elevator on the ‘lower deck’
opens into a foyer area and main saloon with
double-height ceilings and viewing ports in
front and above. The master suite features
(his and hers) individual dressing areas as
well as a spa room/hammam with a sea
view, vanity area for her and a private media
room with entertainment system and large
screen TV. There is also a study, bar area,
galley and dining room, plus a dayhead for
guest use. On the ‘upper deck’, accessed
either by the spiral staircase or the lift, are a
further two luxury ‘cabins’ with full en-suite
facilities and a private family room space
with entertainment system. On this second
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level the viewports are atrium style, letting in light from above and affording
a unique view up to the surface, as well as out.
Schütte has further developed the underwater habitat concept to design
what he calls an Offshore Activity Center. This time the anchored steel
structure floats on the sea’s surface and consists of duplex hotel rooms
on the ‘lower deck’ under the water and living rooms, terraces, dive shop,
restaurant and bar on the upper deck above sea level. The project, already
FEA approved, was developed to support a tourist submarine operation by
overcoming the problem of travelling long distances in a slow, short-range
sub to reach a coral reef. The idea is that the Activity Center can be towed
out to the site for a dive season to facilitate multiple submarine trips. Again
with submarines in mind, he is also developing a high-speed catamaran of
18 metres in length to transport a passenger submarine that can be rented
out by superyacht owners.
In an era where even space tourism is on the agenda, it is perhaps
surprising that a luxury underwater home of the kind Schütte is
proposing has still not been realised. “The undersea world remains the
most seductively exotic environment open to modern day pioneering”,
says Schutte. “The dream of living under the sea is not a new one.
For generations it has been the subject of discussion, speculation and
fantasy. To turn this dream into a reality has taken vision, significant
investment and genuine technical innovation. Today, we have not only the
technical capability to achieve this dream, but significantly, the availability
of materials and processes at prices that make an H2OME realistically
attainable.” Schütte believes his underwater habitat can be built for around
€10 million. Exclusive, undoubtedly, but well within the means of most
megayacht owners.
Justin Ratcliffe
Images: courtesy of Brilliant Boats
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