The Aquatis complex is located at the intersection of the Lausanne ring road with the M2 metro line: even before the station opened there, in 2005, the city authorities planned there an intercept parking for 1200 cars, over which the participants of the architectural competition could place any program. The RDR Bureau proposed a hotel and aquarium option that fits perfectly into the Biopôle, a scientific and biological park developing around. In 2008 a metro station was put into operation, in 2010 a three-level garage, in 2015 the first guests were received by the 3 * plus hotel with 143 rooms, and now, finally, an aquarium has opened.
The aquarium, round in plan, is inscribed in the L-shaped volume of the hotel; a square with a mirror pond was created between them. The water theme is picked up by the silk-screen printed glass facades of the hotel, but the main role is played by the nearly 100,000 anodized aluminum discs that cover the walls of the aquarium. They are mobile, they can be turned by the wind, in addition, the appearance of the building changes with the lighting and the angle of view. The metaphor is pretty obvious: it's the scales of a fish or the surface of the water.
The first floor is occupied by a lobby, a cafe and a souvenir shop, as well as a greenhouse with a fragment of a tropical forest: 300 species of plants live in conditions of 30-degree heat and 90% humidity. Also on the ground level there are technical rooms. The two upper tiers are occupied by educational spaces and actually aquariums for 10,000 fish and terrariums for more than a hundred reptiles. There are about 50 aquariums in total, ranging in volume from one thousand to one million liters. 20 ecosystems are covered, including the Rhone from its headwaters in the Swiss Alps to the estuary on the Mediterranean coast of France, glaciers, mangroves, coral reefs of Oceania, African lakes, etc.
