An unusual idea: For the K trade fair for plastics, NEW WAVE used PLEXIGLAS® acrylic blocks to transform the POLYVANTIS monument into two vibrant aquariums. Florian Schuran of NEW WAVE and Alexander Petri of POLYVANTIS talk about the challenges and special features of this extraordinary project.
At K 2025 in Düsseldorf, the POLYVANTIS monument made a very special appearance in the form of two custom-made aquariums. Constructed using PLEXIGLAS® GS blocks, they replicated the exact shape of the company logo. Fish? Nowhere to be seen. Instead, a stream of effervescent bubbles rose within the precise reproduction of the logo. This project clearly demonstrates that sometimes the most unconventional ideas turn out to be the best.
An idea takes shape with PLEXIGLAS®
But how do you transform an abstract company logo into a fully functioning aquarium? This was one of the questions Florian Schuran of NEW WAVE Aquarium Concepts thought about when POLYVANTIS approached him for a unique solution for their trade fair booth. “The biggest challenge was to come up with a concept that unites all the desired characteristics,” explains the aquarium construction expert from Wassenberg. “And all this within a very tight timeframe.” Despite these high demands, the project turned out to be a real success. Visitors to K 2025 had the opportunity to admire the result up close. The two aquariums reproduce the POLYVANTIS monument at a scale of 1:1, while also meeting all technical requirements for trade fair booths.
PLEXIGLAS® offers precision in every dimension
“We worked with 40 mm PLEXIGLAS® GS 0Z00 block, which is certified specifically for aquarium construction,” says Schuran. Production started with milling the contours of the front and back sheets – a process requiring utmost precision down to the millimeter. The angled legs of the monument were then glued and bonded to the front, back and bottom sheets. “We used a special adhesive mixture for bonding, which was developed for underwater applications and guarantees a permanent seal,” says Schuran.
But in addition to being watertight, an aquarium must also be functional. This is why the base plate was equipped with drain and ventilation holes and fitted with nozzles. Assembly was then followed by the most challenging phase: post-processing. “Protrusions were milled off manually, and everything was sanded and polished to a high gloss. This process required a great deal of patience and experience,” says Schuran. A particularly ingenious detail is the monument’s two-color design, which is created using a specially printed film. The film serves two purposes, it ensures the correct coloring of the monument while also concealing the water level.
Incorporating an aquarium in a trade fair booth is a challenging feat. With thousands of visitors passing by the aquarium every day, the material must be impact-resistant and easy to clean. “The structural design and material thicknesses were calculated and checked in advance. The 40 mm PLEXIGLAS® blocks offer both the necessary stability and the safety that is essential for building a heavily frequented trade fair booth,” says Alexander Petri, Product Manager at POLYVANTIS.
Details full of surprises
Visitors who took a closer look at the booth may have noticed a few little details, for example that the bubbles rising in the two columns are very different. Freshwater bubbles are coarser and more irregular than saltwater bubbles, which are much finer and pearl-shaped. To achieve this effect, a saltwater concentrate was added to the tap water in the aquarium on site. This slight difference offered a subtle, but effective way of demonstrating that PLEXIGLAS® GS can be used for both freshwater and saltwater aquariums.
Craftsmanship meets innovation
At the NEW WAVE workshop in Wassenberg, it became clear why PLEXIGLAS® GS was the material of choice for this project. “The solid sheets allow for precise processing and can be reliably bonded together, offering the necessary stability for this challenging application,” explains Schuran. The high transparency and glass-like appearance of the material offer practical advantages, since it is lighter and less likely to break than glass. Processing requires maximum precision: “Every angle had to be exactly right for the shape of the monument to come into its own,” emphasizes Schuran.
Compared to glass, PLEXIGLAS® offers another advantage for aquarium construction, because there is no optical distortion even with large blocks. Animals and plants inside the aquarium can be observed with perfect clarity. This is a project that fills everyone involved with a great sense of pride. In addition to drawing visitors’ attention to the POLYVANTIS booth, the aquariums also showcased the power of PLEXIGLAS® GS in a highly convincing manner. “It was a very special project,” says Schuran. “The hours of manual labor that went into each aquarium really paid off.”
