Portugal | Mora River Aquarium by Promontorio Arquitectos

Photo FG+SG/ Fernando Guerra, courtesy of Promontorio Arquitectos

The Mora River Aquarium in Portugal by Promontorio arquitectos

Introduction by Federica Lusiardi, Inexhibit
The River Mora Aquarium is the largest freshwater aquarium in Europe.
It was established for creating a science, culture, and leisure center, capable to foster environment, sustainability, and biodiversity knowledge. Opened in 2007, the building, designed by the Lisbona-based practice Promontorio and shortlisted for the Mies Van der Rohe Prize, was conceived as a neat volume with a delicate and vibrant appearance. Such an aspect is mainly due to the light/dark contrasts produced by a regular sequence of thin portal frames.
The exhibition space, developed in conjunction with the Boston-based firm Cosestudi, presents a dynamic itinerary formed by a set of various freshwater habitats.

Photo FG+SG/ Fernando Guerra, courtesy of Promontorio Arquitectos

Mora River Aquarium – project report by Promontorio
The River Aquarium is located in Mora, a small municipality in the Northern Alentejo region. Given the need to shift regional development from the dependence on an increasingly weaker agriculture economy, into the environmental tourism and leisure market, the municipality launched a design-and-build competition for an aquarium that could somehow embody the paradigms of biodiversity of the Iberian river.
Integrated into the Ecological Wild Park of Gameiro and bordering the Raia stream, the building stands amidst a secluded field of cork and olive trees removed from the more intense leisure and fishing activities of the river. The plot’s gently undulating topography forms a basin at the confluence of two small watercourses. Placing the aquarium at the edge of this quasi-natural retaining lake brought together the fundamental relation between its thematic contents and the presence of fresh water.
Given the blazing Alentejo sun and the need to create shade, the building was devised as a compact and monolithic volume with a pitched shelter of thin white pre-cast concrete porticos with single spans of 33m, evoking the profile of the canonical Alentejo whitewash barns known as “montes”.

Photos FG+SG/ Fernando Guerra, courtesy of Promontorio Arquitectos

The shading and cross ventilation systems along with the water circuits foster the reduction of cooling energy, the sustainable increase of humidity, and the well-being of animal and plant life. Standing on a massive concrete plinth with a built-in stairway- cum-ramp entry, the pitched shed veils a set of mute boxes that contain the program, namely; reception, ticketing, shop, cafeteria, changing exhibits hall, documentation center, research and education, live exhibits, multimedia, and a small auditorium.
Inside, the exhibition spaces tend to be dark, to minimize UV impact on the live exhibits and allow visitors an in-depth viewing of the aquariums. The outdoor void between these program boxes and the pitched shed generates not only accelerated viewpoints onto the outside but also a promenade that culminates in the passage through a bridge over the lake which in itself is also a live exhibit of animals and plants collected and nurtured in the region.

drawing, courtesy of Promontorio Arquitectos

The live exhibits, the main feature of an aquarium, reproduce, through complex life support systems, and the habitat conditions of different regions allow to exhibit side-by-side the various animals and plants. In the basement, these support systems guarantee the stability of water temperature, ph, quality control, and filtering for each habitat parameter, including a duct gallery below each exhibit to supply and monitor the water.
For this building, the water is taken from a well on the plot, pumped into a deposit, and regenerated after use. Also, areas for animal quarantine, food preparation, laboratories, staff facilities, and logistics complete the technical floor. Other than the in-situ concrete cast plinth and the white pre-cast porticoes, the program boxes are made of plastered terracotta masonry, steel frames, and varnished MDF carpentry. With a total built area of 2000 square meters, the Mora River Aquarium includes more than 500 live specimens.

Photos FG+SG/ Fernando Guerra, courtesy of Promontorio Arquitectos