Development of the programming and activation of the ground plane and land/water interface has been prioritized through sectional exploration and concept rendering.
The program has been broken down into three areas.
Public Exhibition: aquaria and educational interface
Internal Investigation: computational and dry laboratories
External Exploration: remote sensing array, submersibles lab and boat launch
These areas are deployed in each of the three historic slips which define the site. Three sections have been developed for each program area that satisfies programmatic and environmental requirements. The ground treatment within each slip is differentiated for these uses. The first (public) is largely park-like with open circulation paths leading to waterfront views. Second is a constructed ground of rehabilitation and study pools for marine specimens with public viewing platforms. Third is a landscape over structure with the submersibles lab housed beneath it and connects by below grade corridors to the service blocks of the laboratories to the south.
To avoid the separation of each program slip into differential forms and divided spaces, a transverse study of a sequence of sections develops strategies for connecting across the slip walls and joining into the vertical building masses.
