| NEWS | DESIGN | BUILDING | DESIGN TOOLS | ENVIRONMENT | CULTURE |
| DESIGN | ||
|
|
Green Synagogue | |
|
|
Multi-Elephant Housing by Foster | |
|
|
Modern Prefab by Marmol Radziner | |
|
|
Colin St. John Wilson - Two Houses | |
|
Multi-Elephant Housing by Foster Spencer de Gray, deputy chairman and head of design at Foster + Partners, calls the new building "a seamless insertion into the landscape that uses the site's natural properties to provide thermal insulation." The partially buried building sports a green roof, and benefits from natural heating and cooling of the interior exhibit spaces using thermal mass. The firm's first completed project in Denmark, and also its first zoological building, the Elephant House seems formally related to other buried buildings the firm has designed, notably the Great Glasshouse at the National Botanical Gardens of Wales, and the American Air Museum in Duxford, United Kingdom. Elephantine Domes The Elephant House consists of a massive concrete enclosure topped with two large domed skylights. There are two paths that lead to views of the elephants: a high road that winds past the old Elephant House to an outdoor terrace, and a gently sloping ramp path down towards the main entrance, between the two oval-shaped domes, which seem to peek out from the landscape. The domes cover the main herd "stables," or indoor living areas, with lightweight, low-e double glazing. These glass roofs enable the elephants to respond to natural lighting, with its daily, seasonal, and weather-based fluctuations. Artificial light is rarely used in the stables, and when it is, it is single-sourced to imitate moonlight. The overlapping leaf pattern etched into the glass panels was designed using computer code to rotate and shift the abstracted leaf shapes. The result is a decorative shading device that provides some variation in lighting level for the elephants below. Pop-out ventilation panels in the domes open automatically when the environment gets too stuffy, such as when the room is being cleaned and water creates a steamy environment. The ventilation system can also be manually operated by staff when required. Rainwater is collected from the roof and used for washing the elephants. The geometry of the domes was digitally rationalized into planar quadrilateral surfaces (flat sheets of four-sided glass); no triangulated or curved glass was necessary. This allowed for the construction of a complex, doubly curved surface in a relatively inexpensive way. Pachyderm Peeking Approaching the main entrance from the ramp, the elephants aren't visible, which only heightens a visitor's anticipation. A simple sign that reads "Elefanter" marks the low building, and glazed sliding doors allow entry. Inside, the view to the right includes the herd area under the largest dome, where the female elephants and a three-year-old male have their stables. Foster + Partners described the innovation of the elephant housing, prior to completion: "The main herd enclosure will for the first time enable elephants in captivity to sleep together, as they would in the wild." The adult males and females live separately, as in nature. To limit stress on the elephants, indoor areas were designed so that the animals are never surrounded by people on all sides. Between the two domes, on neutral territory, there is a special room for mating, since a priority for the zoo is to help maintain population numbers of these endangered mammals. There are educational displays about elephants on an exhibition ramp, from which visitors also get views into the male herd area. Back-of-house maintenance and animal care facilities are tucked out of sight. The sequence of spaces is varied, from the low, compressed entry to the ramped procession through the interpretive displays to the balcony, then the long inner viewing ramp, where it is possible to get close to eye level with the massive animals. But in terms of viewing the elephants playing in a seemingly natural way, the main attraction for zoo visitors is the horizontal open-air viewing balcony that affords sweeping views over the elephant enclosure and the park beyond. This is the best position from which to view the elephants outside, walking around, playing together, and searching for food that the staff have concealed around the landscape. A varied, stimulating environment keeps the elephants actively exploring, as they would in the wild. They look inside logs, dig in the sand, and climb the sandy terrain looking for carrots and apples. Inside the Domes The new facility provides a dramatic improvement over the 1914 building. The indoor living area for the seven resident elephants has increased from 250 to 1,360 square meters (2,700 to 14,600 square feet), and the indoor visitor area from 120 to 950 square meters (1,300 to 10,000 square feet). This revolutionizes the visitor experience, and makes the animals happier and more active. It also means that on a rainy day, when the elephants may be inside their stables, visiting them can still be an exciting experience. >>> Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum...
|
|
|
