Zoo department with location at Niederurseler Hang - Frankfurt am Main Competition 1st prize 1987

The task program

The Zoological Garden of the City of Frankfurt am Main is in urgent need of expansion in order to fulfill its educational and research tasks and to serve the protection of species and the recreation of the population. The zoo department at the Niederurseler Hang, which is to be relocated, is to accommodate above all the wild animal program with large-scale enclosure requirements for animal husbandry in the open countryside. A landscape zoo is to be designed for this purpose.
There are elephants, rhinos, hippos, lions or tigers, large bears and hardy monkeys. In addition, antelopes and gazelles, wild cattle, deer and camels to mention only a few groups. The animal program is completed by wolves and wild boars and by smaller hardy native species. The native reptiles find a place in naturally designed habitats. Large aviaries for birds of prey. A farm is planned for ancient domestic animal breeds.
We were awarded 1st prize in the competition and subsequently the contract for the preliminary design.

From the documentation on the preliminary design

The planning idea:
In contrast to the known zoo facilities with an allocation of the enclosures according to continents, the so-called Geo Zoo, we had the idea to arrange the zoo according to the climate zones corresponding to the vegetation zones of the earth. Within the climate and vegetation zones from the pole to the equator, the animal species are spatially grouped according to their origin.

Climate and vegetation zones:
The layout and topography of the site on the Niederurseler Hang was ideally suited to our idea:
The climate and vegetation zones running across the entire earth divide the zoo area from north to south into large-scale landscapes from the polar region to the equator.

The following climate and vegetation zones are planned for the site:
Zone of polar regions
Zone of tundra and taiga
Zone of native primeval and cultivated landscapes
Zone of rocky areas and mountains
Zone of deserts
Zone of steppes and savannas
Zone of scrublands and dry forests
Zone of rainforests

The zoo landscape
The approach of our planning was not to string together individual enclosure areas, but to create a continuous zoo landscape based on the natural biotopes.
In this landscape, the enclosure areas are placed according to their natural affiliation.
The zoo landscape is spatially divided by diverse, natural-looking landscape elements that merge into one another without sharp separation.
These zones are characterized by typical landscape elements such as rock formations, water surfaces and, above all, appropriate vegetation.

Locally appropriate vegetation as well as individual alien species that particularly emphasize the respective character of a zone form different landscape types and can be meaningfully assigned to the various animal groups.
So in the new zoo the planting is to have a similarly high value of the attractiveness for visitors as the animals.

The enclosures are developed by round ways. The proposed all-weather footbridge (corresponding to a degree of longitude), which makes it possible to experience the different types of landscape on the shortest possible route, provides an exciting contrast to this. At the same time, all accessible animal houses are attached to it. Thus an attractive offer for the short stay in the zoo is reached.

The service paths, which are laid out independently of the visitor paths according to the latitudes, contribute to the readability of the geographical zoning of the zoo and at the same time form a functional supply system.

The animal species sequence was consistently fitted into the ecological-animal-geographical concept. Due to the direct experience of the zones from the polar area to the equatorial rainforest, this planning fulfils a very high didactic value.