Perth Zoological Gardens Orang-utan Exhibit and Boardwalk Experience

The Perth Zoo’s Orang-utan Exhibit upgrade is our utopian project.  It has combined many of our interests in the one project and proved to be a challenging and stimulating design task. Iph Architects were engaged as the Perth Zoo’s Architect and have designed upgrades to the Front Entry of the Zoo and the Australian Bushwalk Exhibit and, most importantly, developed a master plan and design for a major redevelopment of the Zoo’s Orang-utan Exhibit.  Sumatran Orang-utans are critically endangered and are facing extinction in the wild within the next five to ten years. Perth Zoo is regarded as a world leader in captive breeding of the  Sumatran Orang-utan with 26 Orang-utans born at the Zoo since 1970.  Orang-utans are highly intelligent, tree dwelling great apes and are one of our closest biological relatives. .  They have the intelligence of a 6 year old child, and are very inquisitive, so creating a stimulating home for them is of critical importance.  The task involved detailed consultation with Zoo staff, studies of other animal enclosures and developing an understanding from the Zoo keepers of  the ways of the orang-utans  Our Brief was to retain the existing Service Building containing the animal night quarters  and re-design the exhibit