The museum is located on Stralsund’s historic waterfront adjacent to the historic center, which has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. With a striking skyline of restored warehouses and traces of its former use, the entire port island district remains a distinctive architectural monument on the outskirts of the historic city centre.
Site Plan, Level 2-3
The main entrance lies on the new harbor promenade. The foyer’s ground floor, an independent space suspended within the otherwise self-contained exhibition areas, accommodates a shop, a café, and the museum’s front-of-house services. A 30 meter suspended escalator diagonally traverses the entire foyer, passing beneath authentic whale skeletons as it carries visitors to the upper floor. From there, a splendid view opens across the Strela Sound and the new Rugen Bridge to Rugen Island.
The OZEANEUM relates to the sea, rather than to the city. It is conceived as an open house, designed to be flooded with daylight and accessible to visitors from all sides. Reminiscent of stones around which water swirls, the building is divided into four individual sections, each of which is devoted to a particular exhibition theme including two aquaria addressing the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. This layout allows visitors to take a spectacular journey of discovery through and between the exhibitions. The centerpiece of the North Sea aquarium is a huge tank of schooling fish.
- Client
- Deutsches Meeresmuseum Stralsund
- Architects
- Behnisch Architekturbüro
- Address
Hafenstraße 11
18439 Stralsund
Germany- Gross Area
17.400 qm / 187,294 sq.ft
- Gross Volume
90.900 cbm / 3,209,679 cu.ft
- Competition
Behnisch & Partner, 2022, 1st prize
- Photography
Frank Ockert
Roland Halbe
Johannes-Maria Schlorke- Awards
2008 Mies van der Rohe Award 2009, nominated
2008 Trendmarke 2008 (presented to the Client)
2010 Landesbaupreis Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 2010, commendation
2010 International Architecture Award
2010 Deutscher Stahlbaupreis, commendation
2010 European Museum of the Year Award- Downloads
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Section AA
The exhibition areas are located on the upper floor and linked by footbridges and ramps. Exhibition tours are designed to bypass general visitor traffic. The aquaria are set around a central core of maintenance and technical amenities. The four volumes are wrapped in ribbons of pre-formed steel sheeting, fabricated by virtue of ship-building technology. They draw together the building’s various sections, lend it a unified profile, and evoke a sense of lightness through their projecting edges.
One of the three historic warehouses on the site has been incorporated in the OZEANEUM and accommodates the administration, a multi-purpose hall for the museum’s educational projects, a self-contained, multi-purpose hall for public events, and, on ground level, a gastronomic outlet.
