Oceanarium-Africarium (Oceanarium-Afrykarium) in Wroclaw has three floors, one of which is underground. And that underground floor is a big part of the facility, where the visitors won't have access. This part is the oceanarium's "entrails", it is where its "heart" beats. Under the building (which is 160 metres long) in large halls and corridors, a complicated system of installations is being created, and it will be responsible for, among others, pumping and flow of water, its mixing and purification.
The mounting of specifically custom-made pipes to the pumps and filters is in progress. There are kilometres of electric cables and thousands of metres of pipes providing heating, as well as huge ventilation shafts, where adults could walk without problems. All this will by controlled by a computer.
There is a room with stand reserve tanks, used for mixing water with salt. In addition, there are other technical rooms, such as a kitchen where food for animals will be prepared, a room for divers, or elevator for transporting animals.
The visitors won't have access there. Apart from one hall, where they will be able to look through round windows — with 54 powerful gravel filters purificating water in the pools. Soon those huge tanks will be filled with gravel, which will be exchanged in 5 or maybe 10 years.
"60 per cent of the technologies used for the construction of Africarium (Afrykarium) has never been used in Poland before," underlines Radosław Ratajszczak, the President of Wroclaw Zoo (Zoo Wrocław) and the director of the garden.
This applies to the roof made of plastic pillows (which shall be resistant to hail and attacks of birds). There is air between the layers of PTFE film, hot enough to melt the snow. The roof will be retractable during the summer so that the animals have access to the sun and fresh air. There will also be polyurea insulations of tanks, which have not been used in Poland on such scale before, or special pumps resistant to salt water. We have also just received very important parts for filters waiting for installation, which came from the Netherlands.
"Because the Dutch are excellent in everything connected with water," explains the director. Just like the Spaniards are specialised in interior design and the Japanese in the installation of acrylic glass through which we will watch the fish and animals. There are also teams from Germany, England and Switzerland involved in the construction and montage of various installations, and the Ukrainians worked with pouring concrete. Recently Director Ratajszczak counted the subcontractors and there are 64 of them. This shows the scale of the investment.
"We use the experience of other gardens, and the colleagues from abroad help us. We want to avoid mistakes of other oceanariums, but we will make new ones for sure," says Radosław Ratajszczak with a smile.
Oceanarium-Africarium (Oceanarium-Afrykarium) has an independent source of power which is extremely important in case of power failure in the city. Power switchboard is outside, there are also power generators. The main power cable which is 6 km long runs under Odra River.
Eliza Głowicka
Photos by Rafał Makieła
