BayEcotarium / San Francisco / USA en cours
Context and issues of Pier 39
Slightly isolated from Pier 39, the current aquarium is hardly visible to visitors. Due to its architecture, it is not prominent and attractive enough from a distance. Its many staircases and façades make it difficult to clearly identify the type of facilities.
With the entrance located on top of a stairway,T access is rather difficult according to current standards.The public of today and in particular people with reduced mobility prefer a street level entrance, which requires a reorganization of the tour circuit.
From a thematic perspective, this aquarium used to be truly spectacular at the time of its construction, but today it faces competition from the recent aquariums of San Francisco and Monterrey. The theme and intention need to be completely rethought.
From an urban perspective, the seafront promenade presents " intensity breaks ", isolating the two piers from one another. Adding intensity would make the area more attractive.
The rear of pier 39 is occupied by delivery areas, resulting in a commercial and aesthetic disqualification of that part of the pier around the current aquarium, despite the presence of the marina.
The current layout of the aquarium and its relationship to the environment need to be completely reorganized. Our proposal includes two parts: the Ecotarium itself and the redesigning of the public seafront promenade between Pier 35 and Pier 39.
Our offer consists in a complete requalification of the public space and skyline of the Pier.
Urban integration: bring Pier 39 back into the world of the future
The icon of the port in San Francisco skyline
All major maritime cities have built architectural icons in their waterfront skyline: New York, Sidney, Singapore, Oslo, Reykjavik ... These icons become true symbols of the city. San Francisco already had its iconic bridge, but what we are offering here, is to build a maritime architectural icon that anchors the city in its origins and makes it enter the future.
Architectural concept:
An architectural landscape inspired by the world of the bay
The Ecotarium project originates from the seaside promenade: a path that winds between the land and the sea, a reed garden that recalls the origins, volumes that emerge from the ground and the sea, a skyline connecting the city and the sea.
Architectural, abstract, curvilinear, undulating, and fluid forms seem to be inspired by the flows and forms of the marine worlds that inhabit the bay: we think of fish, translucent and iridescent beings, and of the movement of waves. One thinks of water running down in a thousand shards of light, with scales gleaming and dancing!
They also remind us of the legendary "shell mounds" of the ancient bay people. Thus they bear an ancient identity, associated with these shapes, the water, the sea and the cultural heritage that still inhabits the imagination of the bay people today.
Thus, architecture is anchored in the collective imagination, transmitted from generation to generation. It fully affects the identity of San Francisco Bay.
Reference, amas coquillers de S F, formes marines, dos des poissons
Three volumes to blend further into the environment
The Ecotarium appears as an "architectural family" of three buildings: a large one, a medium one and a small one, integrating with each other and seeming to float in the landscape. Those three volumes work together and create a world intimately connected to the paths that run along the seaside.
It is a landscape more than an architecture. The shapes of the buildings, their blue-green changing reflections, their iridescent material seem hybrid, between nature and architecture. This bio-inspired and biomimetic architecture proves that nature can help us make a city of the future which is different and more in harmony with the environment.
An iridescent materiality by day and bioluminescence at night:
The glazed and transparent façades are protected from the sun by scales with iridescent reflections. Their color and effect vary according to the position of the visitor, but also the position of the sun and the course of the clouds . This material evokes the scales of marine animals, the reflections of mother-of-pearl and textures from the deep ocean.
Due to the rounded shape of the building , the iridescent façade constantly changes color, from blue to green between the bottom and the top, thus revealing its volume. This very futuristic and at the same time very animal effect puts the project in line with a biomimetic future.
The façades are translucent and the scales have integrated LEDs on the underside to illuminate the volume at night with a procession of colors. This lighting is computer-controlled and can include special, fascinating effects, such as the vital pulsation of jellyfish in water.
Its movement is the pulsation of jellyfish.
At night, it comes alive and vibrates like a marine animal.
Redesigning the waterfront qualitatively:
A requalified environment evoking the very origins of nature
Following the ecological and environmental concept of the waterfront, the project involves its complete requalification. This design is meant to bring a new dimension to the seaside, by reviving the area between Pier 35 and Pier 39 and introducing the Bay Ecotarium with its adequate landscaping, so as to raise visitors’ awareness of the ecosystem of the bay.
The experience is more immersive: the garden appears before the building, inspired by the "nature of the origins" well-known by the ancient bay people.
This introductory sequence sets aside the city landscape to refocus the visitor’s attention on the bay and Alcatraz in the distance. It also creates a perspective that stages the Ecotarium in an environment of nature.
The promenade is open to the public day and night. It is designed in accordance with the contents of the Ecotarium.
In continuation of the Ecotarium 110,000 square feet , a 1.1 million square feet landscaped promenade is created between Pier 35 and Pier 39, a new public space enhancing the attractiveness of the site.
An introductory walk leading to the Ecotarium, through reeds filtering water:
The Ecotarium tells us the story of how the destiny of San Francisco Bay stems from its relationship with nature and the sea, how it has been fertile and how it can still be so in the future. Both nature and the bay have evolved from their origins and continue to evolve.
We are therefore offering a garden filled with water and reeds, reinterpreted in a contemporary way. Reed plantations draw large ripples, as an undulating flow, evoking the marine world. Visitors follow the paths fitted diagonally between these "populations of reeds". This way, they are always somewhat hidden by the high stems and feel "immersed" in this green world, just as shown on the images of "the bay people amid reeds".
Image référence : indiens au milieu des roseaux>>> site de la grande maquette
These reeds also have a function: they filter and clean part of the water coming from the building and returning to the bay. This installation of phytoremediation by reeds shows how nature can help us treat water and clean up.
Image référence : jardin de phytorémediation par roseaux / parc de roseaux de Nanterre
The promenade begins with the staging of the "DOER" submersibles
As the visitor walks from Pier 35, what comes to view first is Alcatraz, then the port. When he reaches the launch base of the submersibles, he discovers the facilities and attends launching demonstrations.
Progressing along the path, he discovers one after the other the two buildings of the Ecotarium, gradually unveiling their iridescent volumes.
Image référence : vue sur bâtiment
Bioluminescent paths and signs
This winding, undulating path leads to the Ecotarium and to the steps going down to the sea. At night, the lines on the ground and the bioluminescent handrails make the promenade appear as "magical”, evoking luminescent algal blooms.
Innovative biotechnologies are used here (from the company "Glowee" among others) and show that tomorrow, nature may provide us with light in a different way, thanks to algae or luminous bacteria.