Seychelles Museum

ClientSeychelles Islands Foundation
CollaboratorARUP, Gallagher & Associates, Terrain
Budget$20M
Key Count319
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture

A CLEAR VIEW OF A DISTANT ISLE

Designing the Seychelles Islands Center began almost as a philosophical conundrum: How do you create a visitors center for a place people cannot visit?
The people of Mahé in the Seychelles Islands are the custodians of a remote natural wonder located 750 miles away: the island atoll of Aldabra. Few humans are allowed to go there, since they would pose a threat to the delicate ecology. Our task was to create a visitor center to help them imagine Aldabra, even experience it, in some tangential way.
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture

To mirror the strange shapes made by tide and wind buffeting Aldabra’s coral reefs, DF&A designed the Seychelles Islands Center to reflect the forces of nature, with the strength of the sun splintering the facade, and, along with the wind, scattering the center across its site.

Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
DF&A brings Aldabra to the Seychelles in a mostly indirect fashion, through a curatorial concept that is fragmented and intense — as powerful and elusive as a lagoon that repeatedly vanishes.
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture

Experiential pavilions provide the sights, smells, and sounds of the atoll in short bursts, suspending the rules of time and space. One pavilion enables visitors to soar alongside a bird looking down on Aldabra. Another allows them to follow the underwater path of a school of fish. Down into the sea, up into the canopy, and finally out to the mangrove home of Aldabra tortoises.

Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture
Danny Forster & Architecture