Island of Amager

The Blue Planet will be Northern Europe’s largest and most modern aquarium. Architecturally, the aquarium is shaped like a whirlpool, giving associations to eddies of fish, birds and sea currents. The building site is in Copenhagen, at the island of Amager, right at the coast of Øresund, north of Kastrup Havn, close to the Copenhagen Airport, and viewed from a plane the whirlpool shape will be shown in full. Approaching on the ground, one will experience the building as floating in a circular reflection pool, and a walk through its interior is a travel through several organic worlds. The solution also takes into account that the aquarium can later be expanded. The building’s gross area is 9,000 m2 plus outdoor facilities of 2,000 m2 plus parking.
Construction started in October 2010 and when the tank is finished in spring 2013, it will be one of Denmark’s biggest tourist attractions with around 700,000 visitors on a yearly basis. Moreover, it will the only aquarium in Denmark, primarily focused on exotic animals and plants – and hence global biodiversity. The building is now so far that the shell is finished and the steel structure is erected. Currently the molding of the walls is taking place. In total there will be placed 27.000m2 metal furring, which after the casting will be removed. The installation of aquarium techniques has begun and is expected to be completed in October 2012.