![NYC Aquatrium](https://aasarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/NYC-Aquatrium-by-Lissoni-Architettura-01.jpg)
Aquatrium by Lissoni Architettura won the speculative competition organised by Arch Out Loud . The project creates a dynamic system that interacts with its surroundings, offering multiple ways to experience the water world. The site is excavated to become a large and unique water basin, with the Aquarium and the Marine Centre a submerged island accessed via a pathway.
![NYC Aquatrium](https://aasarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/NYC-Aquatrium-by-Lissoni-Architettura-02.jpg)
A sloping beachfront covers the Parking area to form a panoramic public space, while a boardwalk surrounds the basin and becomes a floating ring connecting the two waterfronts and encompassing the Aquarium and its sliding roof, a green island that closes to become a planetarium protecting the arena and the biome domes within.
![NYC Aquatrium](https://aasarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/NYC-Aquatrium-by-Lissoni-Architettura-03.jpg)
No better position could be chosen to represent the most important NYC aquarium than the East River itself. Our project creates a dynamic system that interacts with its surroundings, offering multiple ways to experience the water world represented by eight triple-height transparent biomes:
![NYC Aquatrium](https://aasarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/NYC-Aquatrium-by-Lissoni-Architettura-04.jpg)
Four Oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Southern) and four Seas (Caribbean, Mediterranean, Tasman and Red Sea), while the North and South Poles are expressed by a readily visible iceberg in the center of the Atrium.
![NYC Aquatrium](https://aasarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/NYC-Aquatrium-by-Lissoni-Architettura-05.jpg)
The main idea is to generate an environment whereby visitors feel that they themselves are entering the water to discover the beauty of the marine life on display; a living shell that opens to the sky during the day to reveal the sea worlds and which closes as darkness falls to take on a “second life” as a planetarium, protecting the arena and the biome domes within, like a shell protects the pearl.
![NYC Aquatrium](https://aasarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/NYC-Aquatrium-by-Lissoni-Architettura-06.jpg)
Having the water level define the starting point of the project, the site is excavated to become a spacious and innovative water basin, with the Aquarium and Marine Center forming a submerged two-level island accessed via a perimetral ramp that starts from the lobby entrance and leads visitors along the biome pathway.
![NYC Aquatrium](https://aasarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/NYC-Aquatrium-by-Lissoni-Architettura-07.jpg)
A sloped beachfront encloses the Parking area to form a panoramic public space, while a boardwalk surrounds the basin to become a floating ring connecting the two waterfronts and encompassing the Aquarium and its sliding roof. Source by Lissoni Architettura.
![NYC Aquatrium](https://aasarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/NYC-Aquatrium-by-Lissoni-Architettura-08.jpg)
- Location: New York City, USA
- Architects: Lissoni Architettura
- Project Team: Piero Lissoni (Team Leader), Miguel Casal Ribeiro, Mattia Susani, & Joao Silva
- Year: 2016
- Images: Courtesy of Lissoni Architettura