Mobile Sea Life Aquarium

Kay Elliott Architects were involved in the research and development project with Merlin Entertainments, to design, build and open the first fully mobile Sea Life Centre.

The brief called for the Sea Life Centre to be constructed in a key European location for a fixed time period (approximately 18 months), then dismantled and moved to a new location, whilst maintaining all the key Sea Life brand values.

The design incorporates the highly serviced life support systems and quarantine, together with offices, shop and other facilities associated with a traditional permanent aquarium. The themed display includes a total of 29 tanks, the largest being the Ocean Tank which is 3m deep x 9m diameter and incorporates a 6m long acrylic tunnel, all capable of being demounted and re-erected.

The initial site selected was in Dortmund, Germany, where it opened successfully in July 2002. It has subsequently been relocated to Dresden in 2004. Following the success of this R&D project Merlin have commissioned a further mobile aquarium.