Deep (The Deep Submarium), Hull
1998-2002

The £45.5 million Millennium Commission lottery scheme is one of Terry Farrell and Partners' landmark projects. It comprises two buildings. The visitor attraction, located at the south-west point of the site also houses the Learning Centre, the Total Environment Simulator and the University of Hull's research facility. The Business Centre, a simple linear structure close to the site's western edge will help fund and contribute marine based research to the educational part of the scheme.

A central objective was to create a building with a bold, pioneering image for the city of Hull. The four-storey visitor attraction housing a world-class aquarium exhibition is therefore designed to be a dramatic icon.

The Deep is a building that revels in its metaphorical associations. At an extreme point in the landscape, the visitor attraction rises in a wave-like form, amplifying the geography of the site and the oceanographic function of the building. The exterior is treated as an eroded rock face using organic forms and lines, while irregular recessed strata on the façades provide points of access and openings for windows. The roof plane is treated similarly to the wall surfaces so that the building is read as a three-dimensional object rather than as a series of two-dimensional planes.

The Deep, which opened in 2002, is achieving great success as an attraction and welcomed its one millionth visitor just 14 months after opening.

While the main mass of the building is treated as natural metaphor, two architectural elements are placed within the composition. These are an observation point at the form's pinnacle, with unrivalled views across the River Humber to the great Humber Bridge, and an entrance lift, stair core and walkway that bridge out of the main structure. The urban boundary of the site is marked by the business centre, which offers highly flexible office space for young businesses and larger spaces for established anchor tenants.

As Terry Farrell sees it, one of the great products of urban regeneration is the knock-on effect that one development can have on a whole city – as typified by the transformation of Bilbao since the building of the Guggenheim museum in 1999. The Deep has been cited as a world class project, which has spearheaded regeneration in the area and has put Hull and its people on the map.