( Lars ) Mikael Genberg , is a 41 year old Swedish artist and entrepreneur from Västerås, Stockholm .
Whilst he began his career working with the traditional art forms such as sculpture and painting, Mikael is gradually expanding his horizons where he is now combining his creativity with ongoing business development and “new thinking”.
He is becoming famous for his spectacular and sometimes controversial art projects and more recently for his “alternative living dwellings”
The driving force behind Mikael Genberg`s creativity is the challenge to make the impossible possible.
Unswerving commitment is a facet of his personality that contributes greatly to his success and therefore the fulfillment of his dreams and visions.
His greatest incentive is in building collective consciousness through his work to make the world a better place and his natural ability to engage imaginations, works as a catalyst in inspiring people to look at the world through his eyes.
The Floating Underwater Hotel @ Pemba Island, Zanzibar
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What began as an inspired work of installation art in a Swedish lake has now reached the Indian Ocean island of Pemba.
The Pemba Island floating hotel room, part of the Manta Resort in Zanzibar, is a floating hotel room with an underwater bedroom and a unique view.
Designed by Mikael Genberg’s Swedish company Genberg Underwater Hotels, The Manta Underwater Room is essentially a private architectural island offering an awe-inspiring view of the surrounding landscape and marine life.
The Underwater hotel is a part of Manta Resorts’ beautiful, multi-room hotel that sits on the Indian Ocean island of Pemba -a pristine island of great beauty and fertility near Zanzibar.
The floating structure, made of local hardwood, offers three levels of viewing for visitors to absorb the scenic environment from above, below, and at sea level.
Whether you choose to climb the ladder to the top deck of the floating room to soak up some sun, stay at sea level to relax in the lounging area, or descend to the lower quarters to view the exotic reef fish, it’s sure to be an experience to remember.
With a bedroom located four meters below the surface, visitors are given a unique perspective of the plentiful presence of aquatic creatures swimming past and clinging onto the panoramic windows.
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An underwater selfie by Jesper Anhede ( in diving gear ) – travel & resort photographer for the Manta Resort & the Underwater Room …….. see http://anhede.se
Visitors can sleep in a fully submerged bedroom with windows that open out onto the tropical waters outside.
And at night, when the fish and other tropical creatures are no longer visible, lights outside the window attract squids and octopuses
The Blue Hole is a circular hole anomaly in the coral reef and is inhabited by a number of large coral heads and abundant marine life.
Approximately 250 meters off shore it falls to 12 meters deep at high tide and is roughly 50 meters wide in diameter – a perfectly protected spot for the floating underwater room.
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A small group including The Genberg Underwater Hotels company and other Swedish and Tanzanian investors, have made the underwater room on Pemba possible.
A Zanzibar registered company was formed, Genberg Art UW Limited, owning the underwater room and which in turn is now operated by The Manta Resort.
mikael genberg in the underwater hotel at the manta resort, pemba island
The Traditional Swedish Houses Projects
Mikael’s hallmark is simply art inspired by the signifying red Swedish house with white corners – strongly characterised by functionality and realism.
In these Art projects, many of which have become known internationally, alternative ways of accommodation have always had a central role.
Mikael’s 2009 vision is to place a small Swedish Red House with white trim on the Moon by 2015.
Utter Inn
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Utter Inn which opened in June 2000, is a single underwater hotel room three and a half meters below the surface of Lake Mälaren, about a kilometer from Västerås, Stockholm
It contains only twin beds and a table.
The Utter Inn stimulates the most typical of Swedish dreams; to have a small Swedish red house with white gables on your own island.
Mikael Genberg ….. ” There is a remarkable feeling to go to bed while the fish are surrounding and watching you carefully. You are in an aquarium – for fish to be beholders of man.”
Ooops Hotel
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Hotel Oops which appears to be a victim of flooding – is a red house with white corners, half submerged into the Lake Mälaren (in Västerås archipelago )
The foundations, driven into the lake bed, have been made to look as if they are the ground floor of a house creating a cunning illusion.
The single-floor accommodation is in the top of the house and is encircled by wooden decking on which you can sit and enjoy the peace and tranquility of the beautiful lake and its wildlife.
Inside the house is a large single room which includes luxury bedroom, kitchen and sauna – all solar powered, of course.
Guests ere delivered to this unique hotel by boat but they have access to a dingy so can paddle out and explore the lake and its islands at leisure.
Woodpecker Hotel
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At Mikael Genberg’s Woodpecker Hotel guests command spectacular views of a public park and Lake Mälaren and can look across the city of Västerås from 13 meters up in a magnificent 130 year old oak tree ( the highest tree in Vasa Park in Västerås)
Genberg designed the hotel to look like a traditional Swedish Red Cottage placed incongruously in a treetop rather like it has been deposited there by a fairy-tale tornado.
The hotels enjoy fully booked status, being visited by both national and international guests throughout their seasons of operation but as there is no heating at the moment you can only stay there in the summer season
It was built in 1998 and is suspended from very strong wires so no nails damage the tree.
Room service is delivered via a pulley system or you can decide to be winched up and down from your room.
The Moon House
Mikael`s largest project is called the “MoonHouse” Luna Resort and has far reaching implications when considering the realms of possibility.
To be the first art project on The Moon, Mikael’s goal is to place a red cottage with white gables ( a symbol of Swedish life that Swedes hold close to their hearts ) that would bring the barren, dead moonscape to life
Since the beginning of the 20th century, space has belonged to an exclusive few. The Moonhouse art project aims to democratize space exploration by bringing man closer to earth’s nearest celestial body, the moon.
The MoonHouse will enable people to make history and a mark on the international scene since the MoonHouse will be the first payload funded by private individuals to land on the moon
In 2009 Mikael placed a symbol of The Moonhouse, a red house on top of the Globen in Stockholm
Since that day, The Moonhouse has fascinated, surprised and above all inspired people
The idea of placing a red house with white corners on the Moon came about in 1999, after Mikael had heard that the Swedish Space Corporation was planning to construct a satellite to be launched into orbit around the Moon, as well as planning to build a Moonlander.
Four years later he gathered the courage, phoned the governmental authority Swedish National Space Board, and shared his idea with them.
The Swedish Space Corporation has, through careful investigation, confirmed the technical viability of the project
Designed by American aerospace company Astrobotic, the 9sqm red building – trimmed with white fascia, windows and a front door – will bring the barren, dead moonscape to life for the first time in history.
The house is currently 75% engineered to spec, and will be outlined by a thin sheet of specially developed space-cloth, which will be stretched over a carbon frame.
Once placed on the moon, the installation will construct itself as it is filled up with gas. this means that the structure, which holds the house up and shapes the construction, can correct itself, automatically sealing itself from any leaks.
The crowd funding initiative proposes to install a self-assembling house on the moon, which aims to be sent up in Oct 2015 on SpaceX’s falcon 9 spacecraft.
“The race to put a man on the Moon ended long ago. But will Sweden win the race to make an architectural mark in space?
If the Moon belongs to everyone, I suppose an iconic little Swedish house crowd funded by a global community has a place on the Moon. Nevertheless, I always assumed that if and when we started colonizing the Moon (and the rest of the universe), the architecture would be tailored to the possibilities of a brand new landscape, not a symbolic monument to the aesthetics of Planet Earth.”
For the first time in history, people and not states will fund a mission to the Moon.
Thanks to the ambitious crowdfunding initiative The Moonhouse can be realized — a red house with white corners on the Moon.
The Moonhouse project has received “Kickstarter crowd sourcing” funding from partners from the private sector, with around $15 million is required to transport the cottage the 384,000 km from the Earth to its destination.
Each $1 pledged to the project will take The Moonhouse about 25 meters closer to its destination
The Moonhouse is more than just an art project. The aim is to inspire people to push through mental barriers and broaden their perception of what we can make possible.
The Moonhouse is a democratic art project, where everyone is welcome to participate and create a unique symbol for what people can achieve, together.
The Moonhouse makes space available to each and everyone of us. Together we can make it happen.
