California Academy of Sciences
The freshly opened museum of the California Academy of Sciences is one of the most unique green architecture projects of the recent years - and also one of the grandest museums of natural sciences in the world. The museum was designed by the world-renowned architect Renzo Piano and one of its special features is its "live roof" which, allowing the building to blend seamlessly into the surrounding landscape of the Golden Gate park, serves as an energy-saving element at the same time. The seven-inch layer of soil substratum covering the roof of the museum acts as natural insulation. The live roof incorporates 1.7 million live plants, chosen in keeping with the specific climatic conditions, thus connecting the building with the natural environment both visually and functionally; according to Renzo Piano, part of the park is elevated, placing the building underneath it. The ceiling to floor glass walls of the museum building ensure that 90 per cent of the rooms can use natural light. Thanks to the glass walls and the 60 000 windows built in the roof cover, the park and its seasonally changing natural colours will be revealed to the visitors from almost every room in the building. For the heat insulation Piano, foregoing the traditional synthetic materials, used dense cotton produced from discarded denim jeans. The material is also said to provide better sound and heat insulation.
The 1853-founded California Academy of Sciences is one of the most special natural science museums and scientific centres worldwide - the only one combining a planetarium, museum of natural sciences, aquarium, four-storey rainforest, 3-D theatre, science labs of the academy, library, auditorium, administrative offices, two restaurants, roof terrace, etc. The museum features a Philippine coral reef, with its over 2000 reef fishes easily one of the largest displays of live corals, as well as a North Californian coast aquarium offering an opportunity to experience the smell of ocean and the tide and ebb of the waves on a special "sandy beach" - not to mention all of the underwater inhabitants which include a giant octopus from the Pacific Ocean. The new museum invites you to take a walk on the Amazonian riverbed through an underground tunnel with piranhas and similar creatures swimming just above your head. The building also contains a four-storey rainforest covered with a glass dome. A path is spiralling through the display creating an illusion of authentic environment. The host of the rainforest's inhabitants comprises 1600 animals, 100 exotic reptiles and 600 birds and butterflies freely fluttering about. Each of the rainforest's storeys, as it were, represents a replica of a different type of rainforest - the Borneo, Madagascar, Costa Rica and the Amazon versions. One of the building's wings is home to a 20-strong colony of penguins as well as an aquarium of turtles and alligators (one of which is an albino). The museum is equipped with all the thinkable and unthinkable latest technologies, making possible enjoying incredible experiences like virtual butterfly-catching with the help of a digital sweep-net.
California Academy of Sciences
55 Music Concourse Dr.
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco
www.calacademy.org
10/2008
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