Acquatrium, the Piero Lissoni project in New York

The new Aquarium under construction in New York, a project by Piero Lissoni

Modernity and technology are bringing man to over look the environment and the world around him more and more, especially in big cities.
The ‘NY Aquarium & Waterfront’ competition which takes place in in New York has the purpose to rediscover the relationship between man and nature through the creation of an aquarium that encompasses the marine world.
What’s better than a shell for preserving  and protecting ? This is Piero Lissoni and his team’s winning idea, who has developed a dynamic structure consisting of multilevel island totally immersed in the East River waters.

The Acquatrium aquarium will host aquatic fauna and flora from all 5 continents

The space has been designed on a central plan carved into a reservoir that can be reached by a ring  shape walkway that links the mainland to the structure and offering a panoramic view of Manhattan.
During the day, the complex is open and from the square eight triple-height transparent domes emerge. These domes are, at their turn, subdivided in different levels: air , earth  and water  which, going downwards, cross the whole section of the acquarium and follow the same order of the different levels that from the surface develop towards lower floors.
These domes are called “biomes” and they represent the  four oceans ( the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indian and the South)  and the four seas ( the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Tasmania Sea).  The North and South Poles, instead, are both outlined by a massive iceberg placed in  the center of the atrium.
And just like a shell with its pearl, when the lights go down at night, a huge dome  covers the surface, lighting stars, moving planets and galaxies and  transforming this structure  into a planetarium. The new aquarium of the Big Apple then will allow you to immerse yourself in an architecture that disappears into the deep blue of the  ocean, to discover the ecosystems and the species that populate them since always.
Visit our site!!