Issue No. 4
Above: Concept for a zero energy zoological experience on the island of Dochodo in South Korea, by JDS Architects. The firm calls the proposal “a case study to define a tourist region based on sustainable development only, where natures and structures function in equilibrium, symbiotically feeding one another.” Images courtesy of Zoo Buildings: Construction and Design Manual.
Hello everyone, it’s Matt writing from New York City. Welcome to October. The weather here is still warm enough for my daughter and me to go for weekend runs in Central Park. She rides in the baby jogger and eats raisins, and I push with all my might. It’s hard to say who has more fun.
Our route takes us through the Central Park Zoo where we stop and watch the sea lions circle endlessly in their aquarium. It helps to distract my daughter from the monotony of long distance running. However, if I’m being honest, it always feels a bit sad.
So when I saw German architect Natascha Meuser’s new book, Zoo Buildings: Construction and Design Manual, I read it to learn about the tension between humans, animals, design, and commerce.
Zoo design is all about trade-offs, understanding human psychology, and appealing to emotion. Below, we interview Meuser to understand the “how” and the “why” behind zoo design, and to examine the impact of design decisions in this no-win place. While you might never design a zoo, Meuser’s insights provide food-for-thought the next time you’re contemplating the impact of the choices behind the product, services, and environments you create.
Matt McCue & Amanda Tuft, Co-Founders / Editors@thecreativefactor.co
A lion enclosure at a zoo in Moscow. RIA Nowosti / Mikhail Fornichev
Zoos are relatable experiences. According to the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, more than 700 million people visit zoos and aquariums each year. “Immersive” encounters with wildlife are quite popular. The San Diego Zoo, along with its new Zoo Safari Park, saw a combined record attendance of 5.5 million visitors in 2018.
They are built by humans, for humans, and inevitably come at a cost to the animals. “Even the best zoos today are based on captivity and coercion,” says Jon Coe, a well-known zoo designer, in a recent Time magazine article on the future of zoos.
In her new book, Zoo Buildings: Construction and Design Manual, German architect and professor, Natashca Meuser, explores the thinking behind the decisions designers make when reinventing these experiences.
The Big Cat House, including, for whatever reason, monkeys and “various small animals” as well. Basel Zoo, 1956.
You initially thought zoo design would be a straightforward architecture issue. But it became about much more. What did you notice?
Today, we must understand that society’s view of the optimal co-existence of humans and animals has altered fundamentally since the first scientifically-managed zoological garden was built in Paris in 1793. This change in human conceptions of the wild animal, from a mere showpiece to a being with rights, is now more than ever a topical issue.
Zoos are going to exist, even if they are essentially glossy prisons. People can try their best with conservation efforts and more open enclosures, but the animals are still locked up. How have designers viewed this trade-off throughout history?
With an impressive ignorance towards the needs and rights of animals! But in the past, we just didn’t know better.
The architectural history of zoos is a reflection of Western humanity’s relationship with animals: Christian values, academic emancipation, and political power are key factors. Developments always crystallized in the form of buildings and architectural reform.
As with general notions of appealing architecture, humanity’s relationship with architecture and animals also changed. The zoo evolved from a collection of living trophies and a museum with live exhibits to an amusement park with a moral duty.
Top: Theme World Yukon Bay in the Hanover Zoo, 2010 (photo: Dan Pearlman Markenarchitektur / Frank Roesner); Getting a meerkat point of view at the London Zoo (photo: Natascha Meuser); Bottoms-up in the penguin basin of the Wuppertal Zoo (photo: Natascha Meuser).
You write about the architecture of zoos, but there are also the themes of human psychology and emotion. What roles have these played?
Atmosphere is part of any spatial situation. And architecture in zoos is playing with emotions. Almost all the perceptible properties of architecture and landscape architecture are experienced primarily through the atmospheres they create.
It is not only the building, with its spatial forms, but also the atmosphere of a situation that needs to be as harmonious as possible. The staged nature of a zoo has an atmospheric identity that can be derived from the characteristic atmospheres of the areas of origin of the respective animal species.
A major turning point in zoo design occurred in the early 1900s when German animal trainer Carl Hagenbeck introduced the cageless animal enclosure. Tell us about what he did and its impact.
In his panorama zoo, Hagenbeck showed, for the first time, an impulse that allowed zoos-to-date to shed their ‘cute pavilion’ look, liberating them and turning them into independent architectural landscapes. The animals were no longer cordoned off from the viewers. They were now visually transported from their cages and presented on a natural stage.
A view through the armored glass of the hippo pool at the Wroclaw Zoo (photo: Leszek Solski).
The fact that Hagenbeck had this idea may have something to do with his origins. In addition to his activity in the animal trade, he was well aware of the physical capabilities of animals and knew how large trenches had to be built from his practical experience in the circus. Hagenbeck’s aim was to give the viewer the feeling of seeing animals in their natural surroundings; he didn’t design enclosures only to perform a function. The idea was to reflect the image of the natural environment of each species.
From top: The outside of the Asian Elephant House at the Zurich Zoo (photo Natascha Meuser); the Asian Elephant House pool, which allows the elephants to drink up to 100 liters of water daily (photos Natascha Meuser and Jean-Luc Grossmann); whereas the elephant enclosure at the Zurich Zoo boasts a beautiful, modern design with lofty indoor spaces and outdoor areas to roam, treatment rooms behind the scenes are a stark reminder of the business of being a zoo (photo MKK Architects, Schwerin).
Zoo design enables a friction-less, curated, non-user-led situation…the experience can make you feel something that is in contrast with reality. Did you notice any parallels between zoo design and other areas of business?
Of course! Zoo design is one big illusion. Over the years, zoos have secured a permanent place in urban cultural programs. This does not simply extend to the zoo as educational institution and research facility. In many instances the zoological garden has become a location that can compete with other unusual event venues. This begins with the participation of the zoo administrations in happenings such as Night of the Sciences, camping in the Zoo (London Zoo), extending to advertising the location for corporate or family events, to offering visitors stints as voluntary animal caretakers.
The architecture also doubles as an event. To the extent that the facility itself becomes an attraction for visitors (from the restaurant with a view into a ‘natural’ world, to the souvenir shop with stuffed animals), the animals recede into the background.
Some zoos have lately begun to counter this effect by staging the animal as a visitor attraction. For example, in the Singapore Zoo, groups of elephants are led across the grounds and visitors can pay to ‘meet’ or feed an animal. The boundary between experiencing nature and a staged attraction blurs. But the event is always run by human beings.
A precarious-feeling crossing in the Jungle Hall of the Arnheim Zoo (photo: Lucas Wahl); traversing the Masoala Rainforest Hall at the Zurich Zoo (photo: Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten AG); Squirrel monkeys scamper through tubes of meshed steel, all the better for a photo op (photo: Müller & Truniger Architekten, Jacob AG); Informative but somewhat unnerving signage at the Singapore Zoo (no photo credit provided).
What did you learn about zoo experience design that you would like to see applied to other areas of business?
Creating immersive environments is a very modern way of storytelling. Although this is still mainly analogue, zoos are already starting to introduce 3-D projections. For instance, if a crocodile is asleep, visitors can watch it moving on projections: 3-D media is starting to conquer the zoo world.
In the field of experience design, there is often discussion of things that make our lives easier, such as a delivery app. But there is less talk about design that is physically or emotionally harmful, even though it’s more prevalent than we like to admit. Why?
Perhaps, it is because we don’t find it easy to address issues that are not easy to change or face difficult truths. And from our contemporary viewpoint, there is much that can still be improved on in zoo design.
Experience Design is Everywhere
Amsterdam: Parkings Spaces Are Out, Green Space Is In
Leave it to the world’s most bike-friendly city to lead the discussion on how we can reimagine urban mobility and transportation. This year, Amsterdam announced it will remove between 7,000 and 10,000 downtown parking spaces by 2025. “The city is booming, and we want to make space for bikers, pedestrians and public transport,” said city spokesperson Margreet Hoedjes.
Consider the numbers that led to the decision: Most cars sit idle for six out of seven days a week. Some 30% of a driver’s time in Amsterdam is spent looking for parking. This resulted in congestion, pollution, and frustration. Amsterdam is trying a range of ideas to reach their goal: underwater garages, parking space sharing apps, even an AI-based parking finder that helps drivers locate the nearest open spot.
The car parking spaces will be replaced by pedestrian walkways, bike lanes, green space, flower beds, and park benches on the sides of the canals.
The Meme is Dead, Long Live the Meme
What’s on the nightstand: Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, by linguist Gretchen McCulloch. Describing language as “humanity’s most spectacular open-source project,” Because Internet dives deeply into our digital communication patterns, revealing how the internet is changing our language. Along its scholarly yet humorous journey, the book examines the surprisingly multilayered meanings behind LOL, how human gestures become emojis, and whether or not putting that period in your text message makes it formal, emphatic, or simply passive-aggressive.
“The internet made our personal punctuation preferences public, and brought with it a different set of priorities: writing needs to be intuitive, easy to create, and practically as fast as thinking or speaking,” writes McCulloch. “We drew these requirements together to create a system of typographical tone of voice.”
Since We’re Feeling Zoo-ish:
These gems were included in the book Zoo Buildings: Construction and Design Manual and we really didn’t want to leave them un-noted. Created by Italian architect and graphic designer Federico Babina, this series is a playful interpretation of zoo design matched to the style of a famous architect. We’re trying to figure out how to get our hands on a copy of that Frank Lloyd Wright snail.
/ Final Thought
When You’re Well-Funded Rival Copies Your UI/UX Nearly Word-for-Word and Pixel-for-Pixel. Down to the accidental capitalization of “Teleheath”.