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Tokyo Sea Life Park is a metropolitan aquarium set in an enclave of (relatively) undeveloped land on the coast of Tokyo Bay. The distant view of a dome standing itself near the water lures the visitor even as he steps of the train. Drawing closer, he is enticed by a 100-meter wide curtain of water and by a glimpse once more of the dome. The visitor comes to the ticket gate. Once past the underground gate, he is hooked. The open sky tugs at him, and he climbs up to ground level. From there, he is gradually and inexorably reeled in, across a bridge and onto the rooftop plaza of the aquarium.
The aquarium is in plan a circle 100 meters in diameter, and the plaza occupies a quarter of that circle. The rest is taken up by a pond, and its water is visually continuous with the water of the bay in the distance. The tops of tents suggest sails on the water. The glass dome, standing in the middle of the roof, is octogonal plan, and galvanized steel trusses curved into circular arcs meet at the top.
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Information provided in part by: Architecture Tokyo
