2021.03.30
R&D WORKS Vol. 18
Sunshine Aquarium "Jellyfish Panorama"
The floors of the building are enveloped in a sea of jellyfish.
A soothing time surrounded by countless moon jellyfish floating softly in the dimly lit ocean. You can experience this on the 10th floor of the complex. The newly installed Jellyfish Panorama at Sunshine Aquarium overwhelms visitors with its gigantic curved tank that stretches up to the ceiling and is approximately 14m wide. It is an extremely difficult task to install a tank large enough to wrap around the entire floor on the upper floors of a building, which has strict load restrictions. Various technologies are hidden behind this dream world.

A curved aquarium covering the entire wall on the top floor of a building
Sunshine Aquarium has tried various exhibition methods to attract visitors to its unique location on the upper floors of a commercial building in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, far from the sea. Some of the most talked-about exhibits include a rooftop tank where visitors can look up at sea lions and pelicans from below, and a tank where penguins swim as if flying against the backdrop of the sky. Then, in 2020, a panoramic jellyfish tank was opened in the new jellyfish area "Kurage Kuukan" as one of the main indoor exhibits. It is one of the widest jellyfish tanks in Japan.
To realize the concept of "being surrounded by a sea of jellyfish," a huge tank measuring approximately 14m in width was curved and filled with seawater from floor to ceiling to surround visitors. However, due to load-bearing restrictions on the building floor, there was a limit to the amount of water that could be used here.
Therefore, the depth of the tank was kept to just over 1m. When installing a huge tank that spans the beams, a supporting structure would normally be built under the beams, but in pursuit of the tank's height, we decided to fix the supporting steel frame members to the side of the beams. The deep eaves around the tank and ceiling further enhance the sense of being enveloped. This is installed so that it projects about 1500mm from the tank into the exhibition room, facing a low window sill that is nearly 300mm deep, and both are covered in mirror stainless steel, aiming to reflect and amplify the view from the tank.

The front panel is made from three pieces of 85mm thick curved acrylic joined together on-site.

Water flow and lighting to create the appearance of jellyfish
Jellyfish have poor swimming ability and will die if they sink. No matter how small the tank, an artificial water current is created to prevent the jellyfish from sinking. In this tank, the jellyfish are controlled by installing baffles to create water currents and numerous discharge pipes. As seen by visitors, the water current circulates throughout the tank: bottom-to-top in the front, to the back near the surface, and top-to-bottom in the back.
To create an illusion of depth, the lighting is designed to only illuminate the jellyfish, without shining light on the walls. Although the use of lenses and filters was considered, the lighting was controlled using only light shields, and the shape of the light was designed to resemble a spotlight. Salt-resistant lighting was installed just above the water's surface, creating a scene that looks as if sunlight is shining softly.
In fact, the ceiling of the observation area is also fitted with water-filled ripple lighting. This ceiling ripple tank is controlled by four screws, recreating the ripples of waves on the ocean floor and creating an underwater feeling.

Behind the scenes technology and maintenance planning
The back area is very important for an aquarium. Maintenance such as feeding and cleaning is usually done from above the tanks, but here, one of the design challenges was how much space could be saved. The equipment was installed in a space with almost no room above the ceiling. Then, as if threading through this, a wooden maintenance bridge was constructed on-site at the end of the process. To avoid the beams, there were some parts where it was necessary to crawl forward, but we were able to create a total of three approaches.

Architecture
Client: Sunshine City Co., Ltd.
Designer | Mitsubishi Jisho Design Inc. Taisei Corporation First Class Architect Office
Contractor | Taisei Corporation
Sunshine Aquarium Official website: Please see.
An interview with Gen Nakamura, the aquarium producer who oversaw the renewal of the Kurage Sky theme. R&D DISCUSSION vol.30-32 It is currently available.
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