Around the world, zoos draw in hundreds of millions of visitors each year. For some cities, they’re major tourist attractions and economic hubs that generate taxpayer dollars and create long-term employment for thousands of people. But beyond these statistics, people have been criticizing the role that zoos play in our society and the way in which we design them that holds the potential a more positive and natural environment for animals.
While zoos themselves have historically been paired with questions around the ethics of their sheer existence, is there a way to rethink the way that we place them within an urban context? Currently, a successful zoo design is expected to balance the line between creating an environment that is liveable for animals while also being able to adapt to change as we continually redefine what it means to keep an animal in “captivity”. The zoo design also needs to consider how to create a safe zone for visitors to be educated up close by seeing these animals in their pseudo-habitats.
