Project Eden
Coexist: Rethinking Zoo competition 2018 / Finalist
Project Eden is a global scale movement seeks to elevate the concept of zoo to fit in the current zeitgeist. It aims to reverse the effect of Colonialism by focusing on geographical and regional context. Each institution will only house wildlife from the local region and use the site-specific trait to promote tourism. The word, ‘zoo’, should seize to exist and only belong to the past. It should be identified as a space that human and nature co-exist.
All institutions will strictly follow two rules:
1. There is no entertainment, only education.
2. There is no human-animal interaction, except staff.
For Barcelona, the solution is to lift the tourist circulation up with pilotis and free up the entire ground level for the wildlife to maximize their living area. The layout of the park is organized from the unique city grid of L’Eixample, and the landscape within the park is derived from the perimeters of the cells the animals used to be caged in to create a hidden educational message for the visitors. Suitable animals will now live in the same zone. Different zones are divided with bamboo fences, so the staff can easily adjust the animal living areas.
All institutions will strictly follow two rules:
1. There is no entertainment, only education.
2. There is no human-animal interaction, except staff.
For Barcelona, the solution is to lift the tourist circulation up with pilotis and free up the entire ground level for the wildlife to maximize their living area. The layout of the park is organized from the unique city grid of L’Eixample, and the landscape within the park is derived from the perimeters of the cells the animals used to be caged in to create a hidden educational message for the visitors. Suitable animals will now live in the same zone. Different zones are divided with bamboo fences, so the staff can easily adjust the animal living areas.