Our planet is warming up and that doesn’t stay without consequences. Pointing out every single one would lead us too far, so let’s just focus on one during this article. Due to the warming waters, coral reefs all over the world are declining. The Great Barrier Reef, for example, hast lost about half of its coral life over the past three decades. It’s about time we turned things around and that’s exactly why Miami will be welcoming an underwater museum as of December 2021.
If you’re planning to make a trip to the United States somewhere in the future, you might want to add Miami to your must-visit list. Especially if you’re a fan of diving and everything sea life-related. Starting from December 2021 tourists and locals will be able to visit ReefLine, an underwater museum looking to restore part of Florida’s coral life. At the beginning, the museum will span over just one mile but in the future that will be expanded to a whopping seven miles of underwater culture.
1. Nature
Have we sparked your interest yet? Well, let’s see what exactly ReefLine has to offer. The park will not only be a tourist attraction but also wants to boost the local coral life. To do so, the structure will consist of concrete modular units designed by Shohei Shigematsu of the architecture firm OMA. A team of marine biologists, researchers and coastal engineers will be assisting the architect in order to provide a more scientific angle too. The concrete riffs will offer a chance for coral life to flourish again which benefits sea life in general as about a quarter of the ocean’s fish depend on corals to survive.
2. Culture
But as we already mentioned, ReefLine will be a culture hub too. In order to do so, the organization works with different artists from all over the world. The first two to have their works on display will be Shigematsu and Leandro Erlich. The first one will design a spiral stair structure with a central open area, offering a place for both marine life and curious divers. Erlich on the other hand will create an underwater version of a work that was on show during Miami Art Week last year: an enormous sand sculpture of a traffic jam. Not all artists have been selected yet so ReefLine is still looking for some which “relate and respond to the environment and raise awareness about the urgent issues facing our planet”.
