Designed for animals

Aviaries certainly hold a special place in the history of zoos and animal parks. Frei Otto’s aviary in the Munich zoo and Cedric Price’s aviary in the London zoo are two of the most significant and complex examples. Aviaries are about verticality and flying, they are about three-dimensional space and defining spaces for birds, not for humans. Two other essential elements need to be taken into account when designing such spaces: the tricky ethical issue of caging, that is to say placing animals in a container partly for visitor’s pleasure, and that of simulating nature in order to reproduce some kind of nature-like environment. These points were the starting points for reflection on the design of a new aviary in Geneva. The first questio... More

CRAM Foundation is an organization dedicated to the protection of the environment and the species that inhabit it. Its main activity is the clinic and rescue of endangered marine species which run aground the Catalan coast, for a later reintroduction to the wild. The Foundation also carries out different lines of work in conservation investigation and education, all accompanied by social awareness campaigns on the state of the marine environment and its problems The new facilities of the CRAM Foundation are located in the former golf course of Prat del Llobregat, in the Equipments Area of the Littoral’s Corridor, with an action area of approximately 20.000m2. The new intervention is between the House Ricarda de António Bonet Castellan... More

"Sir Norman Foster's simple but at the same time complex elephant house in Copenhagen Zoo is architecture with built-in well-being for the flock of elephants living there. The materials used are simple but the execution has been nursed, from the in-situ cast concrete coloured to match the surroundings and the two gigantic dome lights to the hand-seamed wooden formworks and the horizontal shadow gaps in the walls aligning each other over the sloping ground. The elephants? outdoor facilities opening towards the beautiful Frederiksberg Gardens are shaped as a dry riverbed with mud holes and withdrawn lakes. The architects Foster + Partners and E. Pihl & Søn A.S. were awarded the 2009 In Situ Prize and the 2009 Concrete Prize." More

Police Dog Training Facility comprises three zones: the first is approach zone with parking spaces and area entrances; the second zone, principal building, serves as a translator between various public and private regions; the third zone comprises dog habitats, charged with noise and dog activity. Principal building houses rooms for dog guides, trainers and trainees, all of them oriented to the public, quiet side. On the private side, a connecting corridor runs along the whole building, serving as a noise filter, but establishing a visual contact with goings-on in the courtyards behind. The building's irregular floor plan is looking to establish an organic contact with surrounding natural environment; diversely slanted roofs echo the space... More

The Hawai'i Wildlife Center is a non-profit conservation organization which will operate Hawai'i's first wildlife recovery center when this building is completed in late 2011. Located in Halaula, North Kohala, on the Big Island of Hawai'i, the HWC is dedicated to the conservation and recovery of Hawai'i's vulnerable, too often endangered native wildlife through hands-on treatment, research, training, science education, and cultural programs. The new complex will consist of three integrated and sustainably designed components: a wildlife care and response facility, an interpretive and outreach lanai and native species garden, and an open-air education pavilion. The design of the HWC is an abstraction of the archetypal Hawaiian commercial... More

The Veterinary Clinic is located in southeast side of the Lusófona College Campus in Lisbon. The new pavilion dedicated to the veterinary degree works also as an external clinic, providing animal care outside the university environment. The building is developed in three parallel volumes, which correspond to the different programmatic groups. In the first volume are located the public areas: general assistance and waiting area, directly related to the outside. The second volume is intended for practice classrooms and medical assistance rooms, its central location ensure the connection between public area, in the first volume, and office area located in the third body. This system allows to create two independent access for the me... More

Site "Zoo Zoo" is filled with too much contents of reptiles exhibition hall, crocodile theater, lion theater, sea lion theater, etc within a relatively small size site. It might be required four times of current size to accommodate all kinds of programs on the zoo. In spite of this limited condition, this zoo is always crowded with elementary students in Seoul and Geonggi-do area visit this zoo to have an experience of touching animals. The site is located near by the river and the site have a very high chance of flood during the raining season due to the low site level. Client's Request The client wanted to have lot of eve space for the visitors to avoid shower and direct sunlight for luch time. The best solution for three condition;... More

The accommodation for the giraffe is designed as a "shelter", of witch the archetype of the African kraal (traditional African enclosure to keep cattle save) has served as the model. The design provides a comfortable place for the animals. It also gives them more living space, for the giraffes are free and can go in and out as the please. To create a sustainable building with a good indoor climate, the design takes into account the natural elements: sun, wind and rain. For natural light and heat so-called passive solar energy is uses. The roof is transparent and the height of the walls is determined for the best solar potential. Inside but also outside, because even on a beautiful sunny autumn or winter day, the animals are able to stand at... More

Located in the foothill of Mt. Fuji, Japan Guide Dog Center is a place for training guide dogs. The number of this institution is only a few in Japan, and this program was totally unfamiliar to us. In order to design a building with unique program like this case, there are many criteria to be met. However, instead of answering one by one, we were thinking how to create a place satisfying those criteria – sometimes contradicting such as independence-wholeness or security-openness, for example – at once seeking through the theme of designing distance. The final idea came up with a format of connecting small buildings by a corridor, which sounds very simple rule. The buildings are designed according to the phase of dog training and gather... More

The two Amsterdam animal refuges in Amsterdam have been amalgamated – the new-built is the largest pound in the Netherlands. The plot is in the city fringe, an apparently impossible wedge of cake. The “comb model” usual for this function consists of a long service corridor, with a repetition of kennels at right angles to it, separated by small outside spaces. This model is dominated by railings and the look of it closely resembles a prison. We have had the service corridor and the kennel corridor converge in the Amsterdam Animal Refuge Centre. This creates a long, thin ribbon building. This building is folded like a ribbon along the waterway around the plot. Inside this, two large play spaces for the animals have been created. The bu... More