Creating a man-made island is a tall order on its own, but designing one that also acts as an artificial reef and fosters marine life is another challenge entirely.
The French-Romanian architectural team of Quentin Perchet, Thomas Yvon, and Zarko Uzlac, has done just that with its award-winning Biodiver[city] project, Inhabitat reports. The design was recently announced as one of the Jacques Rougerie Foundation’s International Architecture Competition laureates.
The proposed island would allow visitors to view the enormous faux-reef and its accompanying marine life from the water’s surface to its depths, functioning as an educational center and marine life reserve. Animals would be free to come and go as they pleased, rather than trapped in captivity.
Visitors would need a boat to reach the island, where, once aboard, they could see three levels of exhibitions and concessions above water. Below the surface, visitors would descend past animals such as whales and dolphins to reach fish, coral, and reef-dwelling microorganisms. The project was designed to give people a chance to see marine life in its natural habitat.
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| Aug 11, 2010
Platinum Award: Reviving Oakland's Uptown Showstopper
The story of the Fox Oakland Theater is like that of so many movie palaces of the early 20th century. Built in 1928 based on a Middle Eastern-influenced design by architect Charles Peter Weeks and engineer William Peyton Day, the 3,400-seat cinema flourished until the mid-1960s, when the trend toward smaller multiplex theaters took its toll on the Fox Oakland.
