Life in (and beyond) underwater hotels

Phillip Vannini was awarded funding from an Internal Grant for Research to explore underwater hotels from a socio-cultural perspective to further insights into underwater human inhabitation.

The objective of the proposed research is to describe and interpret how guests, staff, and designers of underwater hotels relate to them. From a relational perspective, to relate to an environment is to experience it, perceive it, inhabit it, make and re-make it through practice, apprehend it as we move in and around it, and imagine it and our place within it (Ingold, 2022). More broadly, the greater goal of this research is to understand the socio-cultural significance of underwater hotels and develop insights into the significance of underwater developments intended for human inhabitation.