A recent addition to the Calgary Zoo is a collection of African pavilions. Canted curtain walls slice into what looks like a mud-plastered base, tall dolmens shine like beacons in the winter dusk. It rains inside the gorilla pavilion, a school of tilapia cleans the hippo pool, an aircraft hanger door opens onto a plain of zebras — altogether an exotic experience in a Canadian winter. On Site sat down with Peter Burgener, Rick Chow, Bill Mitchell, Kevin Pierson and Ross Roy at Burgener Kilpatrick Design International (BDKI Architects) to discuss the implications of this kind of eccentric architecture and whether or not such projects influence mainstream architecture. This is a distillation, more or less, of what was said. On Site: If this kind of architecture can be done for a zoo, on an island in the Bow River, why can’t it be done for schools and office buildings on MacLeod Trail? BDKI: It is because the Calgary Zoo, important as it is to Calgary and to Canadian zoos in general, is not a mainstream building on a highly visible site that it has to be extraordinary to get public attention. This was central to the program: the Africa pavilions have raised the status of the Calgary Zoo to the top 10% in Canada. Destination Africa has increased revenues by millions of dollars, contributing to the zoo’s wide outreach program in threatened environments around the world. The project balanced theming, a fundamental component of the program, with the provision of a great experience. Rather than starting with a building and constructing exhibits within it, we show environments with animals, plants, insects, birds and climate. The zoo developed a powerful storyline based on exploration narratives, African villages and safaris, and the architecture wrapped the narrative. It was designed from the inside out.
‘This project caught the interest and stirred the imagination of everyone involved— in our [BDKI’s] office and also on site. At the two family days during construction 760 people showed up although there were only 110 people working on the site at that time. You don’t often think of a steelworker who wants to come back to work on the weekend to show his family what he’s working on.’
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