Zoological gardens
Z
Role
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Research
Visual research
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Design
responsive website and emails
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Development
responsive emails
A natural habitat created in a zoo is an illusion.
Edward F. Gibbons JR. Everett
What
This double sided and foldable box allows me to show the animal houses, enclosues, in zoos from the past and future.
This project started with an exploration of a square. A square shape could signify: boring, rigidness or unflexible, a feeling of being trapped but also part of whole, what pixels are. The research into the shape turned into a focus of being trapped, oppression and suppression. Particularly suppression of the natural world in zoos and menageries.
Square and natural world
This exerpt of a mindmap shows some the definitions of the square.
Past
To this day zoos deal with suppression of the natural world in some shape or form. The zoo has changed a great deal.
Zoos started off as a collection of animals that were shown off by royalty and upperclassmen. Inaccessible to many like a modern-day Ferrari.
The animal's wellbeing itself is of little conequence and it is oftentimes housed or walled by cement, an enclosure, that is nothing like their natural environment and devoid of interactions.
Self-enhancement — Power and hedonism were at the centre with suppression of animals' natural world as a consequence.
Future
Nowadays some zoos evolved into a place that is not limited to entertainment but also research and education. Representing a concern for the environment more with less boasting. Some even promote the preservation of the animal's original habitats. Zoo enclosures even try to imitate the climates of their natural habitat by for example using “boulders” with heaters under them.
An animal originally from a naturally hotter climate can be anywhere. If it perches itself on a heat-producing boulder. Manipulation of the viewer and behaviour of the animal.
Even with this manipulation you still have the problem of the removal of the natural interactions with others and its environment.
