Karlovac Aquarium and River Museum
Karlovac
15°33'44'' E
The Karlovac Freshwater Aquarium is located by the river Korana. The project goal was to form a new focal point of the city, to validate its promenade and create a new tourist attraction.
The center of the aquarium building defines a square area. The aquarium and the square are intercepted by three pedestrian routes dividing the building in three parts: exhibition space, reading room with a cafe bar and office spaces.
All three parts can be entered from the square, with the facade of each one respectively oriented towards it. The back sides are oriented towards the edges of the plot and covered with earthen materials, acting as a part of the park, playgrounds and walkways.
The exhibition displays the flow of a karst river. It starts on the square with a water surface and continues inside the building with a system of ramps that wind down, underground, into the basement level. Passed the headwaters, sounds of the flowing river quiet down and visitors plunge into caves that feature endemic species.
Further on, they arrive to an aquarium with larger specimens of rare species. Out of the cave, the river emerges from the underground back to the surface. As visitors walk into a tunnel that evokes immersion into the river, they can observe, from the sides and then from underneath, fish and aquatic plants living in warmer parts of the riverbed.
After the tunnel a new series of aquariums with water lilies and rushes show marshy habitats. The exhibition ends with a system of cascading aquariums whose biotopes display waterfalls and the travertine barrier.
Finally, a stairway and an elevator bring visitors passing through the gift shop, back to the entrance hall. The space for analysis of the technological parameters of water, the scientific research center and the spaces for the acclimatization of the fish are located in the center of the layout.
Fact Sheet
Project name
Freshwater Aquarium and River Museum
project number
224
program
public, hospitality, landscape
status
completed
project
2013 - 2015
Construction
2015 - 2016
Location
Croatia, Karlovac, Gornje Mekušje
Site area
8327 m²
Size
2915 m²
volume
12068 m³
Footprint
1939 m²
altitude
112 m
author
3LHD
client
City of Karlovac
Aquarium technology project
Tehnoekspert - Franjo Jović
Photography
Jure Živković, Miljenko Bernfest
Audio-video installations
AVC - Miodrag Gladović
Lighting Consultant
Petar Pintar
Artificial rock consultant
Igor Lenard
Signage and environmental graphics design
Bilić_Müller Studio - Dora Bilić, Tina Müller
Exhibition layout design
Bilić_Müller Studio - Dora Bilić, Tina Müller
Visualizations
Boris Goreta
Aquascaping
Petar Pintar; Aquatic-Design - Petra Bašić
Aquarium setup
Faculty of Teacher Education Zagreb - Marko Ćaleta; Faculty of science - Zoran Marčić
Fish protection project
Croatian Veterinary Institute - Dražen Oraić
Project Team
Saša Begović, Marko Dabrović, Tatjana Grozdanić Begović, Silvije Novak, Irena Mažer Hranuelli, Vibor Granić, Deša Ucović, Ivana Šajn, Nevena Kuzmanić, Romana Ilić
Health&Safety project
Ing. Labos - Nadan Kosanović
Fire safety
Ing. Labos - Nadan Kosanović
Landscape Design
Uređenje krajobraza - Luka Brnić, Ines Hrdalo
Building Physics
AKFZ studio - Mateo Biluš
Elevators
Lift Modus - Rok Pietri
Mechanical Installations
Ured Tri T - Zlatko Jakoplić
Electrical Engineering
Projekting 1970 - Erol Čičić, Antonio Praničević
Plumbing and Drainage
Vodotehnika - Tomislav Fujs
Plumbing, drainage and aquarium technology
Vodotehnika - Nenad Šutevski
Structural Engineering
Palijan - Ivan Palijan, Siniša Lulić
