When Lord Foster was asked to design a 13-storey hotel close to Heathrow airport - which has strict height restrictions due to low-flying planes - the solution was obvious. Plunge half of the building underground.

Only the top seven storeys of the hotel, standing at just under 85 feet, will be visible. The other six floors and 72 feet are subterranean.

The Foster + Partners scheme has been approved by Boris Johnson and Hillingdon council, and it is hoped it will be completed in time for the 2012 Olympics. All the 577 bedrooms in the Riva Hotel will be above ground. But other facilities -including a 20-lane bowling alley, restaurants, conference centre, ballroom for 1,200 dancers and spa - will be underground.

To bring natural light to the lower floors, an atrium runs through the centre of the multi-million pound layered glass and stainless steel building.

The lobby of the five-star hotel on Bath Road has a floating glass deck with views down to the sunken restaurant level, which also features a shallow pool and waterfall. Grant Brooker, executive director at Foster + Partners, said: "This will be the first five-star hotel in the immediate vicinity of Heathrow and marks a key stage in the area's transformation.

"We have enjoyed great support and encouragement from local residents, businesses and Hillingdon and we believe that the hotel's wide range of facilities will ensure it plays a vital role in serving both international travellers and the local community."

It is the latest in a series of underground schemes across London as developers seek to capitalise on existing space and avoid height regulations.

Chelsea Football Club chief executive Peter Kenyon has been given approval for a basement under the garden of his £2million Georgian house in Notting Hill, while Foxtons estate agency founder Jon Hunt is creating a five-storey extension under his Kensington home.

The Riva comes amid a boom in hotel building in the run up to 2012. Earlier this year, the Standard revealed Andre Balazs, a multi-millionaire owner of some of the world's most glamorous hotels, plans to transform the disused Manchester Square fire station in Chiltern Street, Marylebone, into a 33-bedroom hotel.

Mr Balazs, former boyfriend of actress Uma Thurman, owns the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, a hotel is expected to form part of the plans for the redevelopment of the Chelsea Barracks site.

And the Swiss Centre in Leicester Square is being replaced with a £200million hotel. The former Playboy casino on Park Lane and the former Bow Street magistrates' court in Covent Garden are also being converted into hotels.The latter will have 76 bedrooms with interiors by designer Philip Treacy.

going underground lord foster's 577-bedroom design to avoid low-flying aircraft

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