Marine Park at Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

This thesis project is on “Marine Park” at Mahabalipuram beach – a live proposal by Govt. of Tamil Nadu, which consists of two distinct entities i.e, Maritime Museum and oceanarium. As per the tender document, they are built and managed by Fisheries department of Tamil Nadu. Research for oceanarium focused on understanding the complexities of services, spaces, technical requirements as oceanarium is one of the most service intensive project. Additionally, architecture strategies have been analysed to establish effective interaction between marine life and visitors. As the matter of fact presently there is no national level maritime museum or an oceanarium is in India. Hence, this complex will act as a tourist hub. Mahabalipuram being an UNESCO site, this project further enhances tourism aspect to it. The project itself reflect two very diverse and distinct typologies, one a historic museum depicting ancient artefacts and historic evolution of boats and the ocenarium is a fluidic space which is best suited for the marine fishes and also goes with the nature of marine habitat. The designs take advantage of natural climatic conditions and efficiently uses the benefit of site location adjacent to sea coast line. The project also respects the historic context of mahabalipuram