L'Oceanogràfic (Valencian: [loseˌanoˈɣɾafik], Spanish: El Oceanográfico [el oˌθeanoˈɣɾafiko], 'The Oceanographic') is an oceanarium situated in the Garden of the Turia to the southeast of the city center of Valencia, Spain, where different marine habitats are represented.
It was designed by the architect Félix Candela and the structural engineers Alberto Domingo and Carlos Lázaro.
[1] It is home to 45,000 animals from 500 different species—including sharks, penguins, dolphins, sea lions, walruses (until 2019), beluga whales, birds, reptiles and invertebrate—all inhabiting nine two-tiered underwater towers representing the Earth's major ecosystems.
The park also includes a dolphinarium, an area of mangrove swamps and marshland, and a garden with more than 80 different species of plants.
[2][3] The distinctive hyperbolic parabola (hypars) shape of the roof is reminiscent of the Los Manantiales Restaurant in Mexico City, which Candela designed in 1958.