That gunite fake rock is incredibly anti-aesthetic.Even the tamarin looks cheesed-off about it.Gunite is fine when used appropriately, with great taste and judgment and in limited quantities.In some ways it has been one of the major enemies of modern zoo design, when used abusively.The future will probably view its overuse as we today regard the thick iron bars of old zoo cages.The most extreme example I have seen is in the new Valencia Zoo (Bioparc).The mistakes made there will be rectified by some future generation and the solution will involve a fleet of excavators and the removal of >80% of the fake rock.Such a shame to see a new zoo developed at great expense which basically needs to be re-done (not that anybody involved is admitting anything of the sort).Hagenbeck has his own place in zoo history, but it is a terrible lack of imagination to develop new enclosures in the 21st century doing cheap imitations of Hagenbeck rockwork.Just ask the tamarin in the photo!
