By burying a large part of the exhibition and technical spaces, the above ground building volume remains reduced in scale and directly responds to the surrounding urban context. Through cantilevers, subtle carvings and deliberate punctuations in the massive façade, the building is anchored into its city context. Because of its reduced architectural language, the aquarium appears to be monolithic and mysterious from the outside.

The interior functions are only partially revealed through the openings in the façade, intriguing and inviting passersby to take part in an exploration through the oceans of the world. Varied material concepts along the path through the international oceans assign value and meaning to the journey. To some extent, the path is a section cut through a rock in the breakers, as it were, penetrating deep into the world of the sea dwellers. To this end the interior rammed-earth walls are pressed with varied sedimentary layers, figuratively representing the reef walls around the world. In the top floors the interior walls more closely resemble the earth above water.

The same principle of a varied aggregate is used on the exterior façade, which is to be constructed out of a rammed concrete (trass-limestone mixture). At increasing height, the mixture of the rammed concrete becomes finer and lighter corresponding with the earth above sea level. The spatial concept of the Aquarium is based on the idea of controlled sequence of spaces. Each aquarium has its own spatial geometry. The exhibition presents itself as a continuum of precisely composed spaces, which invite the visitor to linger while still providing a constant sequential flow.