Oceanario de Lisboa, gift shop and food court, inspired by nautical environments

Conrotto Progetti designed for Oceanario de Lisboa (Lisbon, Portugal) a new gift shop and food court at the end of the aquarium visitor's journey in place of the existing store and restaurants, covering an area of around 1.000 sqm.

The goals of the project were to extend the visitor's experience begun in the aquarium to these new areas, to raise awareness in visitors that they were consuming in an environmentally and socially sustainable way and to turn food and merchandising areas into a unique and original space, making them a stand-alone reason for visiting.

The main feature of the project is a sea of fish which creates a beautiful azure canopy over the gift shop and food area of the Oceanário, thus extending the experience of the aquarium. Thanks to the collaboration with MATto at Turin’s Polytechnic University, Conrotto Progetti pinpointed PET painted with water-based colors as the right material for this striking feature — able to hide technical systems without blocking sprinklers, lights and A/C vents.

In this final part of the visitor’s journey the space is inspired by nautical environments, where the sea is an integral part of human life: ropes, portholes, sun—bleached wooden planks and organic shapes.
The bright and fresh new environment embodies how relationship between man and marine nature is not only possible, but wonderful. At the same time though, the store answers to the typical and mandatory requirements of a commercial area: its furniture is extremely flexible and has a very high capacity.

The food area layout was defined in collaboration with Portuguese star chef Kiko Martins. Six food kiosks offer different types of food and drinks: codfish, pasta, sandwiches, ice-cream, coffee and wine.
To increase the number of seatings a completely new deck has been added: on its ceiling the shop canopy theme is recalled through wooden extruded stripes assembled in the shape of fish.

The walls have been decorated with subtle tone-on-tone ocean-themed images, and a touch of local flavor has been added on kiosks with azulejos tiles.

The existing staircase, leading from the aquarium to the gift shop, has been enclosed in a glass curtain wall which embraces as well the beautiful mosaic wall designed by Ivan Chermayeff; the ground floor adjacent to the staircase has been dedicated to a relax area, with confortable pouffs and pieces of furniture filled with books.