Aurelia

Private preview for investors & partners

A new category of visitor attraction

Life,
and art.

A living exhibition of jellyfish, light and architecture.
Part gallery. Part aquarium. Part dream.

01Dive in

Traditional aquariums
have a cost problem.

Artful, immersive experiences have never been more popular. But the traditional aquarium, as loved and as captivating as it is, has quietly priced itself out of the future.

Typical capital cost
£0M
Typical footprint
0 m²
Concept to opening
0 yrs
Specialist staffing
24/7

The demand hasn’t changed.
The economics have.

02A New Category

Not a smaller aquarium.
A different experience entirely.

  • The awe and wonderof an aquarium
  • The atmosphereof an art gallery
  • The reputationof a world-class museum
  • The designof an edgy art exhibition

Exhibits composed like paintings. Biology presented as art. Conservation woven through everything. Research at its heart. A place people dress up to visit, and return to for evening events. A destination in its own right.

Concept render: cylindrical and spherical jellyfish tanks lit on black plinths, standing like sculptures in a dark concrete hall.
Concept render · Each habitat a single living artwork

03Why Jellyfish

The perfect concept has existed
for 500 million years.

Beautiful. Timeless. Captivating.

0M
years old: they floated long before the first trees
0%
water: an animal made almost entirely of the ocean by mass
0
bones, brain or muscle: pure, continuous, hypnotic movement

04The Visitor Experience

Spend an hour
in another world.

No laminated signage. No garish TV screens. A single, choreographed visitor journey, designed like a piece of music.

  1. I

    Arrival

    A threshold, not a ticket hall. The light falls away behind you; the city stays outside.

  2. II

    Descent

    A slow corridor of deepening blue. Your eyes adjust. Your pace slows without being asked to.

  3. III

    The Galleries

    Rooms laid out like an art launch; exhibits designed like paintings. Each habitat is a single living artwork, framed in darkness.

  4. IV

    The Living Light

    A central chamber where thousands of moon jellies surround you in exhibits. They drift to choreographed light and music. The room breathes.

  5. V

    Stillness

    Somewhere to sit, to reflect, to take it all in. No narration. No hurry. This is what people come back for.

  6. VI

    Return

    You surface calmer than you arrived, more at peace. You tell your friends, your family, and you bring them back.

Concept render: a dark, column-lined hall with long illuminated jellyfish tanks along the walls, low seating and candlelit tables on the polished floor.
Concept render · The galleries and lounge

05The Investment Case

The economics of an art gallery.
The draw of an aquarium.

Capital cost

Traditional · £8M

Aurelia £1.5M

×5.3

Footprint

Traditional · 2,000m²

Aurelia 500m²

×4

Time to open

Traditional · 2 years

Aurelia 6 months

×4

Energy & operations

Traditional · full marine plant

Aurelia water and light

×3

The raise

£1.5M funds the first site. In full.

Equity · 75% Debt · 25%

06Flexible Locations

Deployed in
high-traffic destinations.

No coastline required. No custom-designed building. Aurelia fits into existing buildings and transforms them, adapting to the size and shape of the space with ease.

Aurelia

Airports

Hotels & resorts

Museums & cultural quarters

Mixed-use developments

Waterfront regeneration

City centres

Cruise terminals

Shopping centres

Tourist destinations

07In Partnership

Aurelia reefLIVE

Built on proven life-support technology, husbandry expertise, and attraction operations.

08The Team

Built by people
who’ve done this before.

  • 01

    David Mace

    Co-founder

    Founder of SEA LIFE Centres. He opened the first, then grew the group across Europe into 25 attractions. Non-executive director of Center Parcs, Go Ape and Haulfryn, and a trustee of Jersey Zoo. A marine biologist by training.

  • 02

    Keith Thomas

    Co-founder

    Development Director through SEA LIFE’s European rollout, alongside David. Co-founded the consultancy Petersham Group in 2003, and has delivered projects worldwide, from theme parks to aquariums. A biologist by training.

  • 03

    Joe Lavery

    Co-founder

    Takes aquarium projects from concept to construction: species sourcing, licensing and animal welfare. Senior SEA LIFE roles worldwide, and a non-executive director of the National Marine Aquarium. A marine biologist by training.

09Vision

One star attraction.
Then a constellation.

  • Rotating exhibitions

    New species, new light, new reasons to return.

  • Technology layers

    Responsive light and sound that make each visit unrepeatable.

  • Education

    A generation meeting marine science somewhere unforgettable.

  • Conservation and research

    Research and breeding programmes behind every wall.

The first site proves the model.
And that’s only the beginning.

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