Illustration.

What is Zoo Design?

• Contrary to popular belief, Design for zoos include much more than "enclosure design". In addition to animal exhibit spaces, it is vital to consider behind-the-scenes management and support areas, associated public spaces and tactical approaches to story-telling, including high- or low-tech interpretive media.

• Naturalistic , authentic designs show visitors the importance of habitat and animals and habitat are interdependent

• Main goal of modern zoos is to promote conservation and educate visitors 

• With this in mind, I wanted to focus on how the design and allocation of each facility in the zoo in relation to each other can help the keepers run the zoo efficiently whilst still catering for the needs of the visitors.

• For example, the water condition at marine pavilions are very crucial in maintaining animal welfare and therefore the facility in which houses the filtration systems must be close enough to the keepers lodge that the keepers can access th machines easily and efficiently.

• However, after talking to the owner of Safari World Thailand, it was brought to my attention that certain limitations concerning information are too revealing to the public therefore, a limited amount of information surrounding the running of these enclosures may not be sufficient enough in order for me to conduct a strong enough argument.

Moving over to Function

• Promoting animal welfare is one of the main goals modern zoological parks must assume as a priority.

• The design must stem from the animals themselves , as this design is directly affects them, without proper exhibits, holding facilities and appropriate back of house support, the design is not only inadequate but useless. Much like how architect often talk to the client before designing an the client’s house, the zoo designer must take into account what the behavioural and physical needs of the animals are as well as what maintenance requirements are needed to be taken into account. 

• For example, when housing cetaceans i.e dolphins and whales, there is always a general idea that “bigger is better” however, Atlantic bottlenose dolphins do not like deep waters and are often observed in the wild in waters less than 3 metres deep. Indicating that the dolphins resided in the shallower areas and only moved to deeper waters when food is scarce. Therefore, even though captive Atlantic bottlenose dolphins where provided a total of 5 pools with depts varying between 3.96 m to 8.23 m, the dolphins were observed to spend time in the moderately sized pools most, then smaller pools then the largest pool least.The dolphins did not choose pools in proportion to any of these dimensions i.e larger pool dimensions paralleling greater use, nor did the dolphins behave in a way that indicated no preferences between depths and locations. Instead, the dolphins had preferences. These preferences were not correlated with increasing sizes or proportions but on the dimension of overall depth.

• If animal needs not met :

  • Stereotypic behaviour, a pattern of movement such as pacing and head bobbing that is performed repeatedly, relatively irrelevant in form and has no apparent function or goal are really seen performed by wild animals therefore re often considered an indication of stress. These behaviours are often a result of an accumulation of causes for example, these behaviours may arise when an animal is physically restrained from moving to a desired place. Stereotypies may also stem from other behavioural or psychological stresses such as boredom, physical restraint, fear or frustration.

  • Unsuccessful reintroduction to the wild due to loss of natural behaviour crucial to surviving in the wild. Animals in zoos with lack of stimulants that encourage and allow natural behaviours such as foraging and hunting are 4 times more likely to die from starvation aften being released into the wild than any other location

Essay Style - Extended essay

• Takes a theoretical or historical topic that addresses an aspect of visual culture and uses a writing style similar to that of an academic paper. Topics could involve areas such as: fine art and post- colonial theory; contemporary film and narrative; or fashion and identity. Your research would usually be based around reading and understanding secondary and primary texts on your subject and, where appropriate, visual analysis. 

• As the information obtained throughout my research are mostly academic papers done by researchers, it is only appropriate if my report follows a similar template

• Research papers such as 'Effects of Pool Size on Free-Choice Selections by Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins' by Melissa R.Shayan, 'Containment Facilities Standard for Zoos' publish in New Zealand in 2007 and 'The Maintenance of Satisfactory Water Conditions in Dolphinaria' by Corporate Public Health Engineer to name a few.

John Berger’s Ways of Seeing

• Examines how people has always used imagery as part of their language i.e how me we see things before we can talk about them with words. ‘Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognises before it can speak’.

• The idea behind this is that the visual world is what creates the world that we describe with words. 

• An example of Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Wheatfield with Crows’. Berger allowed us to examine and come up with what we think Van Gogh may be trying to convey in this painting then proceeded to informs us that it ‘is the last picture that Van Gogh painted before he killed himself.’ Where at first, all we took from the painting was sun and a farmers harvest, after given such information that grounds the painting and suggests the inspiration for it, we now see something more sinister. What John Berger was trying to achieve by this example was how the context of a painting can ultimately change our view of it. 

• In addition to suggesting how the context surrounding an image may alter and dictate the way we perceive the image, Berger believes that the way we see things is affected ultimately by our knowledge and beliefs. And because of such knowledge and beliefs, we judge art by our own understanding of concepts like “ beauty, trust, civilisation, form, status” and “taste” ( 2009 P.4 ). 

• Berger then proceeds to show schoolchildren a reproduction of a Caravaggio. The comments were “ I think it could be they stole the food and one of them saying they’re not going to eat it, it’s stolen food.”. This suggests that children connect images no matter what background, directly to with their own experiences. One child even interpreted the subject in the middle of the painting to be Jesus as the man in the painting to him appeared to be “[he’s] in the centre of the table and looks like he might be a leader of some kind.” this comment coupled with the fact that most of the girls suspected the subject to be female and most of the boys suspected the same subject to be male furthermore illustrates that unless told otherwise, children will directly relate any given imagery to their own knowledge and experiences.

• This is why I have chosen Ways of Seeing as one of my main key texts and have chosen to talk about these two examples because Berger has included within the process of trying the decipher how images are perceived by the viewers. Just like images, zoos and their design are perceived by the public and whether positive or negative, the public will have some sort of opinion on zoos and without the support of the public, zoos won’t be able to survive. For example, unless the member of the public has worked at a zoo before, they may not be able to perceive the zoo the way the zoo has intended to be perceived. Just like in the case of the schoolchildren and the reproduction of Caravaggio, most members of the public will not likely know of the intent or inspiration of the design or any context thats surrounds the design therefore proceeding to perceive said design to their own knowledge and experiences. I am really inspired by the way Berger has explored this concept via surveying and chosen schoolchildren as well as adults. And, by using these methods, pick apart and explore views on zoo design. Therefore, I feel that if I approach my subject similarly to how he approaches his, I would be able to compare the importance of the different elements in Zoo Design from the publics perspective as well as the Zoo’s -as both opinions are of equal importance.

Jack Self’s “What you should think about architecture”

• Aesthetics simply, is the study of beauty. Specifically the reason to why we find something beautiful and the philosophy of whether beauty exists objectively. This makes it very similar to ethics , where both fields work hard to understand how humans decided whether or not the object in which they are observing falls into which category. Both of them concern value judgements and moral priorities and therefore unlike logic and some philosophies, aesthetics in not based on rules. Aesthetics and ethics are rather about balancing subjective and objective inputs in which results in a common personal decision. 

  • Elephant house, Zurich Zoo = Roof inspired by the light filtering through tree branches ​

• Programme within architecture is all the imagined activities that take place within a building. The word despite being used in this context, still remains the same definition as if it were to be used in biology or computing meaning the causes for a person or animal to behave in a predetermined way. Although programming when used in this context may sound sinister, the way in which some animals in nature behave the way they do is conceptually identical to descriptions of how humans organise their spaces and the movement within them. Like how we can dictate the operations of a computer, we can predetermine the possible behaviour of the population through designation and affordances of space.

  • Giraffe House, Auckland Zoo = Slope in building follows natural built of animal and the 3 m high side of the building allows the keepers to safely observe the animals​

• Similarly to Programme, Functionalism is the study of ergonomic actions, involving measuring efficiencies and tolerances. Today, when we look at a building’s function we must take into account all the invisible parameters that cause it to exist not only just the concerning its occupancy. Finance, planning, regulations, standards and environmental factors are all functional parameters that influence programme and form.

  • Lion George, Melbourne Zoo = Prior to constructing the enclosure, an animal behaviourist is called in to calculate the requirements of the glass in order to be able to withstand a lion running at it at full speed​

• When considering form, architectures have to take into account the difference between an infill building that fits tightly within its' site boundaries (leaving no unoccupied space on the site, except perhaps a defined outdoor courtyard) and a freestanding building located within a large expanse of parking. Without the aid of other space-defining forms such as trees, fences, level changes, and so forth, it is very difficult for a large space to be defined or satisfactorily articulated by most singular forms. Some aspects that are usually taken into account when designing are the shape, mass, scale and proportion of the whole building.

  • Wildlife Observation, Bern Zoo = Built of building combined with its finish make sure minimal disturbance to wild animals​

Tiger Department

• Bengal Tiger ( max. 3.3 m ) + Siberian Tiger ( max. 3.7 m )​

• Jumps upwards of up to 4 m and leaps forwards of up to 6 m

• Curious creatures and therefore if not satisfies with enrichment and the hunting motivation still remains after feeding. All the pent up frustration may lead to the development of stereotypic behaviour such as pacing.

• Safety is very important when dealing with carnivores

• For example, the double metal gates located before entering the tiger enclosures ensure no tiger is able to escape as well as keep other safari animals away from the tigers. The staff on the tower above the gate is also able to monitor the amount of cars entering the enclosure as well as their speeds. In case of emergencies like tigers escaping, the metal fences are closed in between enclosures to prevent the animal from entering another enclosure and coming face to face with lions.

• Plan of action:

  • GoPro : follow routine, mount GoPro on head of staff to record both staff and animal interaction to the enclosure design and/or furnishing​

  • Talk to ranger and keepers in importance of facility location i.e keeper office located behind Zone 2 ensures easy access and minimal disturbance to customers

Dolphin Department ​

• Chosen due to difference in both behavioural and physical needs of animals in contrast to the tigers ​

• Due to the animals house being cetaceans, the animals spend most of their time under water therefore are very sensitive to any changes in water therefore apart from the regular water filtering, chemical treatment of the water is also used.

• Too high chlorine levels cause skin peeling, too low doesn't efficiently clean the pool.

• Chlorine levels checked every 4 hours to ensure the level doesn't exceed 0.3ppm as recommended by the Florida Department of Resources as stated in the 'The Maintenance of Satisfactory Water Conditions in Dolphinaria' by Corporate Public Health Engineer

• Plan of action:

  • GoPro : follow routine from morning to evening, during show (?), during training and routine cleaning in order to get a better view of the part of the facility that is submerged under water​

  • Learn more about the behaviour of these animals and how certain routines are carried out

  • Talk to colleague that helped design the facility about how he has come to a conclusion such as this and the pros and cons

Lion Department​

• African Lions ( max 2.5 m )​

• ' Preliminary Evaluation of Environmental Enrichment Techniques for African Lions' by D.M.Powell

• Plan of action:

  • Same as tiger department with addition of obseriving animal behaviour​

Moving Forward​

• Find any study papers done by Thai professors ​

• Survey Monkey in both English and Thai on Enclosure size Preference vs. Visuality of Animals as well as the Aesthetics v.s. Naturalistic

• Analyse more study papers on Lions and Dolphins