A Wood Railing / October 31, 2011 by Martin

Recently I came across this photo of a red haired woman homo sapiens and her red haired Irish Setter Canis lupus familiaris standing on red bark mulch and watching a group of red haired orangutans Pongo pygmaeus.

I took these photos at the Allwetterzoo in Münster, Germany.

Many German Zoos allow you to bring your dog on to the grounds - just as you can bring your dog into most restaurants (Who needs a doggy bag?).

This is what you see if you stand directly at the railing and look into the exhibit.

view from the railing into exhibit

And here you can see what the railing looks like in the winter without so many visitors.
You might have noticed how comfortably the woman with the dog was leaning on the handrail (it's a real tree) and how the glass allowed for easy viewing into the exhibit even from further back .

The glass railing makes it especially easy for children in strollers to look into the exhibit.

This photo shows the railing from the exhibit side. It's good to see how much the visitors enjoy leaning on a real wood handrail.
What makes the railing unusual is that the glass and the handrail aren't in the same plane.

Photo above: the handrail sits in front of the glass pane, keeping the visitors about a foot back from the glass. And keeping sunglasses and babies from falling into the exhibit. It may also help to keep the glass cleaner.

It's about a four meter drop from the top of the railing into the moat. The moat is the playground for the otters.

Real wood feels great to touch and never gets too hot, but it does rot, and I'm not thrilled to see this detail where the wood connects directly with the concrete:

However, this could easily be fixed. And fixed in a way that the branches can be changed as they wear out.

When you scroll through all the photos you'll notice that some of the railings have bark and some are bare. The railings had bark when the exhibit opened, but three years later I visited and they were bare. Depending on the visitors, peeling bark - and throwing it into the exhibit - could be an issue.

However, wood is aesthetically pleasing. This photo shows another railing at the same exhibit. A standard aluminum handrail would have been artificial and distracting here.

The wood handrail keeps the colors and materials in the exhibit to a minimum and the focus on the animals.

The design was done by Rasbach Architekten in Oberhausen, Germany. I worked on this exhibit before I left Germany for the US. You can read more about the exhibit at zoo-lex.org.

360 degree viewing tunnel at Spotted Seal exhibit at the Shinagawa Aquarium Tokyo / May 5, 2010 by Martin

The spotted seal phoca largha exhibit at the Shinagawa aquarium in Tokyo, Japan, offers great visitor views thanks to two 360-degree glass tunnels, and a large step-in all glass cylinder. There is also a flat acrylic glass panel of about 4 meter length and 2.20 meter height, and two hemisphere-shaped viewing windows. All transparent elements are made of acrylic except for the tunnel floor, which is made of glass.
For the seals I would have liked to see more water surface area, possibly with some water movement (wave machine or jets), and a larger beach area, but otherwise this exhibit had a lot going for the animals: exposure to the outdoors, and it is probably the deepest seal exhibit that I have seen in my life.

Here is a link to a video that gives a quick overview of the lower part of the exhibit.

©2010 wild-design.com
Here I am standing in front of the flat panel looking into the exhibit. There is a 360 degree viewing tunnel to either side, and two hemisphere windows straight ahead in the rockwork.

©2010 wild-design.com
Stroller in the tunnel - above
The tunnel is not round but elliptic, which I think led to less distortion if looked straight at it. It also was good because there was no risk of hitting your head against the glass, or having to make it unnecessarily large because of the head height. Click on photo to enlarge.

©2010 wild-design.com
Step-in cylinder - above
Here I am standing in the center of the exhibit in a room with glass all round and above except where the two 360 degree viewing tunnel connect. You can see the concrete support structure for the tunnel on the right (black). The ceiling is slightly tilted - you can't see it well in the photo, or even notice it while visiting, but when I reached up I could tell that the ceiling was from about 2 meters to 2.2 meters on the high end near where the two 360 viewing tunnel connect.

Kid on glass floor - above
A kid is standing on glass. The surface has some anti-slip feature. I'll post detail photos soon.

The layout and the viewing would make this a great penguin exhibit. The only problem is the height difference between above and below water viewing. At the Shinagawa Aquarium they solved this with a staircase for the main visitor flow and an elevator for wheelchairs and strollers. The day I was visiting, on a Sunday afternoon in April, it worked quite well but neither solution is ideal for large crowds.

bubble machine
A bubble machine doesn't sound very exciting and yet I thought here at the Shinagawa seal tank it was effective, inciting and mesmerizing. Adding a nice touch to the tank. The machine throws out bubbles that if the water is calm turn into beautiful circles on their way up. And every other minutes it erupts with a bubble curtain. Best of all: I can't imagine this being expensive or high maintenance.
When I was there the seals where so active that most bubble circles broke up pretty fast - but who cares if you get to see beautiful seals zooming by. But when there was a moment of calm it gave you something else to look at until the next animal came racing around.
I found a video below, done by slaiyee that gives you a good impression of the bubble machine.

There are lot more details and other features to this exhibit. I will post them within the next couple days.