29. What makes a timeless zoo exhibit?
Everlasting exhibits which remained good for decades
Photo:
@Animal
When making this thread, I noticed that some exhibits are already decades old but remained good. Others did not age well. Here are some perennially good exhibits which have been popular among generations of visitors
The
African panorama at Tierpark Hagenbeck is actually the first ever exhibit built in modern times with naturalism in mind. It is 117 years old. It opened in 1907 and in 1997 has been declared a monument by the Hamburg city council. It combines four different exhibits - a flamingo pond, a hoofstock paddock which recently holds plains zebra and ostrich, an exhibit of lions and tall rocky pinnacles. They are separated by hidden fences. There is also a concealed path to watch the lions up close.
By modern standards of animal care, the lion exhibit is much too small and flamingos should not be kept flightless. But the panorama is still attractive, still makes a good impression. I wonder how the zoo will solve the problem of space for the lions.
These exhibits ostensibly only replicate a nature for an amusement attraction, but I would argue it is art, and often a high quality one. At least one zoo historian claims the same. Why art? They evoke a sense of beauty. They are not random pieces of habitat, but ones chosen and distilled to create a tiny landscape, using many of the classic art principles of perspective, composition and so on. And their non-triviality and high quality is proven by that tens of zoos and city parks tried the same, but failed to achieve a similar effect.
Photo:
@AnaheimZoo
Photo: @
Gomphothere
African Plains at Bronx Zoo are 84 years old, having opened on May 1, 1941. Like in Hamburg, they show savanna animals separated by hidden moats. But it is a much larger area of meadows, clumps of trees and some low rocks, with several enclosures for lions, African ungulates and birds. The interest of the zoo director Osborn was to show relationships in nature. So lions and nyala appear to share the same space to illustrate the ecological relations between predators and prey, not only because it looks cool.
In the following decades, Bronx Zoo employed a team of architects and used similar principles. The result is a whole palette of very good exhibits - World of Birds, Asian plains, African highlands for gelada and Nubian ibex, Himalayan highlands, Jungle World and Congo Gorilla Forest. Although some individual enclosures are too small or lack outdoor access, they remain interesting and attractive decades later. And will likely be enjoyed in future by new generations of zoo visitors, until their structural material physically breaks down.
Good zoo landscaping uses the same principles as good landscape architecture. They have been known for centuries. Designers of English country residences developed panoramic views in a similar way as modern zoos, including the use of hidden moats, which in Britain are called
haha.
Photo:
@Philipine eagle
Classical Gardens of Suzhou created in the 11th-19th centuries in China and this
otter exhibit in Zürich Zoo both use the same methods to construct a little self-contained landscape in a small space, and to restrict and direct the view of a visitor.
This enclosure for Eurasian otters in is about 54 years old, having been built about 1969 / 1970.* But if not for the rather heavy concrete front wall, one might not notice its age. There is sufficient space, an underwater view, a look into the otters sleeping den, and the landscaping of boulders and native plants resembling a Swiss river. Wild otters sadly disappeared in Switzerland decades ago and did not come back until now.
Photo:
@Maguari
Grzimek House in Frankfurt Zoo is 45 years old. It opened in 1978 and remains one of the best buildings for small mammals worldwide. While few exhibits had to change from larger to smaller mammals, they hold remarkably well.
Much of the charm are well constructed small indoor landscapes. In the night section, they include a bat cave with stalactites and a night savanna for aardvarks. In the day section, there is, among others, a rocky landscape for hyrax and a jungle enclosure for agoutis and marmosets. A visitor sees it immediately after entering, and when leaving the building, one realizes he looks at it again but at the treetop level.
Photo:
@geomorph
Penguin Encounter at the SeaWorld San Diego is 40 years old, having opened in 1983. It is completely artificial and in a commercial theme park. But it remains very interesting, penguins breed there, and one might not notice its age if not for the style of short educational films played on the TV screens.
There are the only emperor penguins in the Western world, a moving walkway in front of the 30 m viewing window and a gallery to sit and watch penguins for a longer time. There is a split underwater and above water view, real ice spread daily on the floor, a backdrop of rocks and a painted mural and an Antarctic light cycle which makes the exhibit appear gloomy on photos taken in summer. Plus a smaller but similar exhibit of Northern puffins, murres and ducks.
Photo:
@snowleopard
Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, together with Bronx, Minnesota, Zürich and Frankfurt zoos is known for having several perennially good exhibits. One is this
grizzly exhibit in the Living Northwest Trail, which contains a stream and an underwater view. The composition is as carefully done as in Hagenbeck, but the center of the visitors view is a lowered stream, not the higher rocks. It opened in 1994, so is only 30 years old, but will likely stand the test of time. Other good exhibits at the Woodland Park Zoo include the gorilla habitat and the jaguar habitat.
So what it takes to make an timeless zoo exhibit, which will remain good for tens of years? I suggest the following characteristics:
1. Space. Expectations how much space should be dedicated to animals grow and grow. Good exhibits were always spacious for their time.
2. Theming is kept subtle. Rocks, if they are appropriate for the animals, are very realistic and not too overdone. Good exhibits contain much greenery, unless they represent a naturally barren habitat.
3. Using the classic principles of landscape architecture, especially composition - from the sides to the center showpiece. If there is something in the background behind the exhibit, it is hidden from view by rocks, trees or similar.
4. Buildings and man-made elements are hidden or maximally discreet and unobtrusive. Fashions in architecture change over time. At best, visitors will simply recognize 'it is so 2020s' and at worse they simply say it is obsolete. A creation which today is most fashionable and cutting edge will be outdated in 20 years.
5. There should be no cultural theming. Hundreds of zoos for over a hundred years built hundreds of cultural artifacts: exotic temples, huts, pagodas, ruins, totem poles and whatever. Most of them have been demolished long ago already, and virtually none was remarkable. There is a saying
natura artis magistra or nature is the master of arts, and it seems to be at work. Time mercilessly eliminates cultural theming from zoos.
Photo:
@twilighter
And for the contrast - Lubetkin Penguin Pool at the London Zoo. It opened in 1934 and is 25 years younger than the panorama at Hamburg. It managed something exceptional - zoologists at ZSL could not find an animal which could live in it comfortably. Currently it stands empty, and worse, it is a Grade I listed historical building. It seems that London historians and architects care about the unusual but not about aesthetics nor utility.
*It was difficult to track the precise age of old zoo exhibits from the pre-internet era, and the age is approximate.
