opposite: the exterior of the Gorilla House, interior below this page: above the rain forest part of the Gorilla House, below, the savannah. right: the Gorilla House with mechanical plant huts in the foreground.
There is much to be thought of here. Is theming , where garbage cans are disguised as tea chests and where Kenya is rammed next to the Congo and somehow the Great Zimbabwe edges in between them, excuseable if it funds a hippo sanctuary in Ghana, the only safe hippopotamus environment left? In this Africa there is no HIV/ AIDS, no war, no famine. It is an image of a mythical Africa that privileges animals. The survival of these animals is threatened, for extremely complex reasons, in real Africa. Brian Keating says that the best zoo is the nightmare of the future.
‘In the Savannah building, left, to give visitors the feel of being on the African veld with a mix of species, we [BDKI] used aircraft hanger technology to open up the whole side of the building, expanding the vista and bringing the outside into the exhibit. This image unfortunately was taken in the winter with the big hangar doors closed.’
on |site 12
39
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator