Hero HQ, sides one and two

the side of the building you see first on approach. The first side (on the left of shot) has goliath stick insects Eurycnema goliath and Jacksons chameleons Trioceros jacksonii. The second side (on the right) has Madagascar day geckos Phelsuma madagascariensis grandis and giant mantis Hierodula majuscula. There are five sides to the building overall.

All terrariums are viewed from outside, and the reflections are awful! Photography of the inhabitants was as good as impossible in most cases due to the reflections on the glass.

August 2013

I quite like the look of Hero HQ, very bright and cartoony, but the theme has completely overwhelmed the information. There are of course no scientific names on the signs, but some of them don't even have the common name! (The bit for the Australian giant mantises Hierodula majuscula just calls them "mantis" which is rather vague!). Also the signs themselves get lost in the general cartoon. I saw numerous people wondering what was in the tanks because they couldn't tell from the surrounding text. Not being able to find the animal in the tank is one thing, but not even being able to tell what should be in the tanks is just poor design.

However there are these little patterny things on various exhibits around the zoo (see attachment below) which I assume contain information. I'm not very techy obviously but I'm guessing its something to do with phones and apps? A pretty crappy way of having information on the exhibits if you ask me.

I think it looks like a pretty interesting exhibit design, certainly very unusual. I like it. Shame about the reflections though.

Looks a little too garish for my liking.

zooboy28 said:

I think it looks like a pretty interesting exhibit design, certainly very unusual. I like it. Shame about the reflections though.

Click to expand...

the thing is they already should have known there would be reflection problems from the way the marmoset doll house was constructed. What they should do is put a wall surrounding the building (set out from the building itself but positioned to cut out the sun). It would lessen the impact of the building but would make actually seeing the animals a lot easier!

I visited the zoo today, i really liked the landscaping and enclosure design, but the reflections on the glass windows of the smaller exhibits are quite bad. The lack of scientific names (and in some cases just a generic name like "spider monkey") on all the signs was quite disappointing too.

@Zooish you're in NZ!?

I agree entirely! But it's not a zoo's job to post meaningless details like the animal's name on their signs for visitor education... oh wait.