The construction of the Oceanarium-Africarium comes to an end. Everything goes according to schedule. The last stage in the construction process has just begun: the completion work involves a number of activities such as gradual checks of the machines, finishing touches to floral decorations and mundane maintenance work. However, what draws most interest and arouses a lot of emotions is the process of filling in the pools and aquaria with water to check if they have been sealed properly. Before we summarise the last two years of continuous construction work, we should go back to the beginnings of the idea, concept and design of the complex that proves to be unique on the European scale.
"I am extremely happy that the investment is coming to its close, we had to put a lot of effort to complete this beautiful complex in such a short time," said Wroclaw's Municipal Secretary, Włodzimierz Patalas.
The competition for the best architectural design of the complex was announced at the beginning of 2008 and attracted 14 different proposals out which the competition committee selected the offer from the Wroclaw-based Fabryka Projektowa ArC2. It took nearly four years to prepare a detailed completion design. Eventually, the construction of the Oceanarium-Africarium began in March/April 2012. "As the difficulties piled up we all had to work to the best of our abilities or even more," said Dorota Szlachcic from ArC2. "The solutions used in the construction process were often ahead of the existing regulations, which is why we had to apply to the Ministry of Infrastructure for special permits to complete the work," she added.
The Africarium's opening is scheduled for the late autumn. Adult tickets to the Oceanarium and the Zoo are expected to cost 30 PLN.
The design of the complex allows for the clear presentation of selected African ecosystems and habitats, including
- the Red Sea: the coral reef and coral reef fishes;
- Red Sea beaches: African spurred tortoise; African Rift Valley lakes (Tanganyika and Malawi): around 50 different cichlid species;
- the Mozambique Channel: manta ray, hammer head, leopard catshark;
- Eastern Afirca: Nile hippo and species typical of the savannah, syuch as: rock hyrax (remote relative of the elephant), aardvark often confused with the American giant anteater!) and dik-dik (one of the smallest antelopes);
- the Namibian Coast: outdoor pools inhabited by the African penguin and brown fur seal (relative of the sea lion);
- the Congo jungle: crocodiles, otters, manatees, fish such as the tilapia and several bird species.
The Arficarium in facts and figures:
- 36 000 cubic metres of concrete and 4 800 tonnes of steel were used, 100 000 cubic metres of earth were excavated and taken away;
- in order to salinate the Red Sea pool and produce sea water 140 tonnes of salt were used;
- the water change/filtration cycle in each tank takes about one hour to complete;
- at peak times, there were around 700 workers at the site on one shift only (in a tree-shift system);
- around 4500 plants will be planted;
- the entire Africarium, i.e. exhibitions pools, filters, settling tanks and kilometres-long pipework system, contains 15 000 000 litres of water! This is the equivalent of 6 Olympic-size swimming pools; such a vast amount of water is of the same weight as around 100 whales or 3000 adult elephants.
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