6 lessons learned from designing the elephant house
October 8th, 2007 by Rasmus Ingomar PetersenPosted in Elephant House, Zoo building, Materials
1. It goes almost without saying: Make the structure robust! Elephant loading is difficult to assess, and repair works are difficult to carry out because of the occupants. So use solid, imperishable materials.
2. Consider the building’s different flows of water carefully. Elephant keeping takes a lot of water for:
- watering the elephants (a big male can drink 100 l per day)
- washing them
- cleaning the building
- keeping the air’s moisture content high to protect the elephants’ skin
- provide water features to encourage the elephants’ natural grooming instincts
Make sure that any excess water can be drained to storage for cleaning/recycling or disposed of.
3. Make sure that technical plant equipment do not emit noise at low frequencies which may interfere with the elephants’ communication
4. When providing dust or sand floors for the elephants (which will be good for the elephants feet and provide them with natural sleeping quarters) consider how the sand can be cleaned and eventually replaced.
5. Glass and elephants are a difficult match. If a glazed window is within reach then consider to use polycarbonate or acrylic instead or add anti-vandal film to the glass – a pointy tusk on a fellow with all the time in the world for scratching is hard on any glass be it heat strengthened or toughened.
6. It’s difficult to establish an engineering design basis for the design of an elephant house. Get in contact with someone with previous experience from such work. Most likely they will be happy to share their knowledge with you!
October 19th, 2007 at 3:49 am
Dear Mr Petersen,
What an amazing structure, - was it inspired by the Bentley pavilion at Autostad in Wolfsburg? How did your engineering firm and the architect decide on this particular design? How did you balance aesthetics, usability and manufacturing issues? Do you have any quantification strategy or do you rely in experts evaluations?
Sincerely yours,
Soren
BMW Group DesignworksUSA
November 5th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Dear Soren
The inspiration has come from the British Museum’s Great Court, where the glass roofing of the court has transformed the museum completely. The Zoo’s director made a visit to British Museum and said, “I want such a roof for our elephants!”. The rest is history …
Traditionally, the architect is the driving force behind the design development for building structures, and in this case, Foster and Partners has set the pace while Ramboll as consulting engineer has responded to the challenge and developed technical solutions that match the visions of the architect.
The key issues for the design of the new elephant house have been:
- Animal welfare and husbandry (sand floor in the main stables, maximum space for the elephants)
- Visitor experience (flow through the building, views of the animals etc.)
- Operation and maintenance of the building (robust materials that can withstand the wear and tear of 1 million visitors per year and 8 big mammals).
- Sustainability (extensive reuse of water, dig the building into the ground and thus keep the indoor climate constant, use natural light wherever possible)
All along the different design stages, these demands on the building have been balanced with the construction cost in order to find the most economical solution. Furthermore, the true experts on elephant keeping are the Zoo’s staff, and they have been involved with the design in every detail all the way from development of the brief to the construction of the building.
By the way; BMW are really nice cars – why did you stop producing the Z8? Is there any replacement on the drawing board?
December 7th, 2007 at 11:20 am
Dear Mr, Petersen,
This building site is truly amazing and I look forward to touring this building during my next visit to Copenhagen.
In the USA, there is a place called The Elephant Santuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee.
They have 2700 acres of elephant habitat divided into three separate and species specific facilities, complete with four custom built elephant houses.
Their website is www.elephants.com in case you wish to contact them. They may be able to contribute valuable insights on the unique housing needs of captive elephants.
P.S. May I have your autograph?
Best Regards,
Marysia
December 11th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Dear Marysia,
I know the Zoo will be happy to hear that you plan to visit the elephant house on your next visit to Copenhagen - certainly the entire design team looks forward to see the building completed and visitors enjoying the result of our combined efforts.
The park in Tennessee has the space and a climate that suit elephants better than Copenhagen. However, we all believe that the new Copenhagen Zoo elephant house is the best achieveable in an inner-city zoo with Scandinavian climate.
… and you may most certainly have my autograph!
Best regards,
Rasmus
March 13th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
it seems like e very good web site but my English is not good. It would be great if it might be availible in other languages too. Thanks.
August 8th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
do you know any information about this in english?
August 9th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Dear ‘green card’
I am afraid I don’t understand your question. It would be most helpful if you could elaborate.
August 11th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
This bldg design definitely required some ‘gigantic’ thinking! Love the openess on top (hopefully shatter-resistant to meterorites :>). My sister, Marysia, shared this site w/me & it’s a very interesting read. Would like to know more about the concept of 3D design & integration into the Eephant House. Do you have any pics of inside of facility as yet to share?
Also, I live in Phoenix, AZ area (Phoenix Zoo) & home of (struggling) Arizona Cardinals football team. If you’ve not seen their new stadium, you can view design at: http://www.universityofphoenix.....statistics - it was ‘planted’ in the middle of a (former) cotton field & looks more like a space ship than (described) cactus! Has a retractable playing field & panels on top of dome that open up. Your bldg is more pleasing to the eye! Good luck w/your next creative project! Oh, perhaps you could add some recreational/interactive feature for the elephants on the interior .. elephants love to paint!
June
August 18th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Dear June,
I am glad to hear you like the design for the new elephant house in Copenhagen.
My 2 year old daughter keeps asking me if we can go to the zoo, so I get to visit the elehant house quite often. She likes it too, so I feel we have hit the right balance between keeping elephants in a confined inner city zoo and giving them space enough to live a good life.
The Copenhagen Zoo’s keepers do their best to keep the elephant active all day. Food is hidden so they have to search for it, water canons spray them and they have their own ‘playground’ with toys and food suspended from ropes. The Zoo has noticed that the elephants are in better shape in their new environment (more muscles!) because the sloping terrain and the soft sand forces the elephants to do more excercise.
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March 15th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Dear Automotive Floor Jack
Thank you very much for you kind words. If I may generalize, I think engineers love to share their experience from their jobs. To engineer something is such a wonderful job because you see how thoughts are turned into paper, and how paper is turned into physical objects. However, few people show much interest.
The purpose of this blog is actually to share our joy of creating with everybody.
With regards to the template of our blog I have to admit that it has been designed by our Communications Department, so I don’t know very much about the blogging set-up. I would be happy to bring you into contact with the right people if you are interested. Just say so.
March 16th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Does anyone else have any experience with this?
March 17th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Dear Dabert,
Well, design of elephant houses is something that happens quite infrequently, so usually the designers will have to rely on the guidelines and design criterias set out by the zoo, and then develop solutions from a fresh start.
However, I do know that the Copenhagen Zoo was inspired by the new elephant house in Köln (Cologne), Germany, and I would be happy to provide you with a list of the German consultants if you write to me directly. I hope this may answer your question.
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