by Andrew Nimmo
Architecture Australia
July/August 2010
pp. 105-113
The award-winning Adelaide Zoo Entrance Precinct and Giant Panda Exhibit are featured in the 2010 July/August issue of Architecture Australia. The design of these two projects is the culmination of a twenty year association between HASSELL and the Adelaide Zoo.
Dispensing with the traditional boundary between the Zoo and its surrounds, the new entrance invites visitors to view the sights and sounds of the Zoo from public forecourts.
The article notes: "The forecourt is made through a combination of building enclosure, the public language of colonnade forms, and a clear understanding of pedestrian desire lines and framed views. The logic of the irregular plan only becomes clear through an understanding of the site...The result is a landscape-driven solution that illustrates a close collaboration between the various divisions within HASSELL."
The panda enclosure is also the result of collaboration within HASSELL and with zoo keepers and other specialists. State-of-the-art facilities recreate the panda's native habitat, providing visitors and carers with the opportunity to observe the pandas at close quarters.
The pandas have been a catalyst to develop further the Zoo's guiding principles of education, environment and research.
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