Cool Article About Cool Aquariums

[PAT]

I don't normally post articles like this but this one seems like it will be of interest to a lot of Zoochatters. I found this on Flavo(u)rwire and it's a list of ten interesting aquarium buildings. It includes some that have been built and others that are still just concepts but it's still a fun read.

A Survey of Awesome Aquarium Architecture – Flavorwire

 

[filipinos]

Thanks for posting, it was indeed very nice to read.

Also nice to see to great portuguese aquariums in there, even with some mistakes.

 

[PAT]

What are the mistakes? It's mostly a design website so I could understand if they got species wrong because most of the information would be lifted straight from other architecture websites.

I really like the look of the pebble shaped one that's to be built in Georgia.

 

[gentle lemur]

It's a pound to a penny that the ZSL aquarium in London Docks will never be built. Are all the other planned projects going ahead?

Alan

 

[snowleopard]

Great link! What is interesting is that some nations of the world have a handful of outstanding aquariums (the United States and Japan are renowned for that fact) and yet Germany, the land of 500+ zoos, lacks a single great stand-alone aquatic facility. Abenteuer Zoo, a book entirely in German that I recently purchased (time to learn a new language!), reviews 600 zoos from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and how is there not a Shedd, Monterey Bay or Okinawa in that part of the world? How has the United Kingdom loads of Sea Lifes but not a single truly great aquarium? How is it that Australia, a wonderful, sea-loving nation, has several good aquariums but not a genuine world-class aquatic establishment?

 

[PAT]

How is it that Australia, a wonderful, sea-loving nation, has several good aquariums but not a genuine world-class aquatic establishment?

I think population and attendance may play a huge role in that. Aquariums are generally run as a business and we simply don't have the population or tourist numbers that are needed to support the costs of setting up and running such a business. I remember reading a report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics not long ago that said 6 million Australians visited a zoo or aquarium in the year that the survey was done. Surely there would be single institutions in the USA, Europe, Japan, etc that achieve at least half of these numbers per year.


p.s. I found the article 4172.0.55.001 - Perspectives on Culture, March 2011
So it was 6.5 million visitors between 2009-2010.

 

[snowleopard]

I think population and attendance may play a huge role in that. Aquariums are generally run as a business and we simply don't have the population or tourist numbers that are needed to support the costs of setting up and running such a business. I remember reading a report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics not long ago that said 6 million Australians visited a zoo or aquarium in the year that the survey was done. Surely there would be single institutions in the USA, Europe, Japan, etc that achieve at least half of these numbers per year.


p.s. I found the article 4172.0.55.001 - Perspectives on Culture, March 2011
So it was 6.5 million visitors between 2009-2010.

Thanks for the interesting link Pat, as I always enjoy looking at those kind of statistics. However, I would think that major cities like Sydney and Melbourne (or even the other million-plus ones like Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide) would be able to support a worthwhile aquatic facility. Sydney Aquarium is decent but Melbourne's is fairly expensive for what it is, and yet both cities have over 4 million inhabitants. That does not even include the massive amount of tourists that visit Australia.

The real surprise is Germany, as with 500+ zoos (an astonishing number!) there still is no facility that rivals these American institutions: Shedd, Georgia, Monterey Bay, Baltimore, Tennesee or Aquarium of the Pacific. There are at least 20 major American aquariums that are top-class, but aquariums have never really caught on in the German land of zoos and I'm still waiting for the day when a truly great one is built in that nation. Many folks love the Berlin Aquarium, and with the two major zoos that city is competing with San Diego and Singapore for zoological paradise.

 

[reduakari]

Thanks for the interesting link Pat, as I always enjoy looking at those kind of statistics. However, I would think that major cities like Sydney and Melbourne (or even the other million-plus ones like Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide) would be able to support a worthwhile aquatic facility. Sydney Aquarium is decent but Melbourne's is fairly expensive for what it is, and yet both cities have over 4 million inhabitants. That does not even include the massive amount of tourists that visit Australia.

The real surprise is Germany, as with 500+ zoos (an astonishing number!) there still is no facility that rivals these American institutions: Shedd, Georgia, Monterey Bay, Baltimore, Tennesee or Aquarium of the Pacific. There are at least 20 major American aquariums that are top-class, but aquariums have never really caught on in the German land of zoos and I'm still waiting for the day when a truly great one is built in that nation. Many folks love the Berlin Aquarium, and with the two major zoos that city is competing with San Diego and Singapore for zoological paradise.

Will Basle be home to the next great aquarium?

Boltshauser Architekten Wins Basel Aquarium Competition, Zaha Hadid only 3rd | News | Archinect

 

[filipinos]

What are the mistakes? It's mostly a design website so I could understand if they got species wrong because most of the information would be lifted straight from other architecture websites.

I really like the look of the pebble shaped one that's to be built in Georgia.

Yeah, most of them are about species. Also, i found an error in the Mora Fluviarium description.

.The real surprise is Germany, as with 500+ zoos (an astonishing number!) there still is no facility that rivals these American institutions

Most German zoos have an aquarium, even if it is small. Still, a country like that realy needs a good stand-alone one.

I think population and attendance may play a huge role in that. Aquariums are generally run as a business and we simply don't have the population or tourist numbers that are needed to support the costs of setting up and running such a business. I remember reading a report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics not long ago that said 6 million Australians visited a zoo or aquarium in the year that the survey was done. Surely there would be single institutions in the USA, Europe, Japan, etc that achieve at least half of these numbers per year.

That´s not really a reason. Portugal population is of 10 million and two aquariums from here are listed. The city of Mora has around 2000 people.

 

[Batto]

Regarding

(...)and yet Germany, the land of 500+ zoos, lacks a single great stand-alone aquatic facility.(...)

and filipinos' "Still, a country like that realy needs a good stand-alone one." :

There is a German institution trying to live up to such demand-the Ozeaneum at Stralsund.
Ozeaneum - Home
The planned new extension might help furthering this claim. IMO, it is a nice institution, but currently no real match when compared to the Shedd, Oceanário de Lisboa or Churaumi, just to name some international "heavyweights".

Additionally, Germany does sport several larger public aquaria, often connected to zoos/museums ( Aquazoo Duesseldorf, Meeresmuseum Stralsund, Mueritzeum Waren...as well as the zoo aquaria of Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig or Stuttgart). Your Abenteuer Zoo copy can offer you more details about each of them. However, size-wise, they also cannot compete with the already mentioned large aquatic facilities.

Otherwise, the public aquarium sector in Germany has been dominated by the Merlin group for several years with their standardized Sealife centers.