Located on one of the most prominent locations on the new masterplan of Aberdeen’s harbour and with a key public route through the site; the purpose of creating a public building is to act as a draw for tourism both local and international. This will attract people along the key routes from Union Square and the City Centre towards Footdee and the new marina area.

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The aim of the building is to create a new entrance into Aberdeen from the sea whilst managing and interacting with the flow of people from the new esplanade along the waterfront. One focus of the centre is to raise awareness of the challenges faced both by climate change and the pollution caused by both oil and oil products such as plastic while working to offer solutions by means of marine research. The other focus is to act as a draw for tourism and to create a place which people want to visit and enjoy.

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The building responds to this by creating an impact on the waterfront. With the viewability and access along the waterfront and the streets to the north, it will be able to draw a large audience. The ongoing aim is to emulate the positive impact of the Victoria and Albert in Dundee in an Aberdeen harbour context. The building is entered through a point which expands into an expansive atrium which draws light down from a large tank in the centre which will show some of the open ocean fish rarely seen by the average viewer. The route then proceeds through a tunnel into a space which focuses on smaller tanks which display fish of shallower habitats. The viewer is then invited to ascend one of the concentric spiral ramps to proceed up to the exhibition levels where presentations of work can be flexibly planned to suit the designer’s needs along with a static exhibition about life in the North Sea.