- Client: California Academy of Sciences
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Architect:
Renzo Piano Building Workshop
- Summary: Planning and Design of Aquarium
- Project Type: Aquariums and Zoos
- Location: San Francisco , CA
- Date: 2008
- Size: 50,000 square feet of exhibits; 410,000-square-foot facility
Steinhart Aquarium
The new Steinhart Aquarium is part of the innovative California Academy of Sciences, which combines an aquarium, planetarium and natural history museum into a 21st century exploration of the natural world. It features the largest indoor, living, coral reef ecosystem exhibit in the world, a living rainforest in a 90' sphere, and over two hundred additional living and virtual exhibits.
Thinc designed the Aquarium exhibits as "explorable landscapes" within Renzo Piano's ordered, urban scheme. Removing all possible barriers between visitors, staff and the living species, it offers its visitors the chance to encounter and explore the spectacular diversity of sea life in new, more emotionally impactful ways.
As part of this groundbreaking project, Thinc helped create and run an interim facility during construction. This space served as a test-bed for strategies and prototypes, as well as a way to transparently share ideas through informal conversations between visitors and staff.
AWARDS
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International Good Design Award
Environment Category
Awarded By: Good Design
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AV Award, Grand Prize Winner
Awarded By: Archi-Tech
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Event Design Gold Award
Best Museum Category
Awarded By: Event Design
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IDEA Award, Silver Winner
Awarded By: Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA)
IN THE NEWS
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Publications
"Deep-Sea Viewing"
Metropolis Magazine -
Press
"Swimming with the Big Fish"
San Francisco Chronicle Magazine [Download PDF]