ARCHITECTURE AND CONSTRUCTION THE ALFRED BREHM HOUSE

AT EAST BERLIN ZOO by Heinrich Dathe

Director, Tierpark Berlin, Germany

O N 30th June 1963, after six-and-a-half years of construction, the Alfred Brehm House was opened as a multi-purpose animal house at East Berlin Zoo. Now, even in bad weathcr, it makes a visit to the zoo more rewarding. It has already had a very great effect on our at- tendance figurcs for in 1963 there were 700,000 more visitors than the year before.

To conform with the principles on which the zoo is built, we had to show manv animals to the public on a large scale and in as free con- ditions as possible; in addition, we aimed to try and combine as harmoniously as we could the animal and plant worlds. The execution of this conception was done by the architect Heinz Graffunder and his department and by the gardener, Ditha Bendig and her as- sistants. The basic idea was to havc a very large, free flight hall, rather k e a greenhouse, with accommodation for large cats, small mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes and insects grouped round it; and planted with as many tropical plants as possible. The public were to have a very open view of the animals as we wanted to avoid the appearance of a row of animal dens.

The budding covers a ground surface of 5,300 sq. m. and encloses a space of 41,500 cu. m. The greatest length of the building is between 100 and I I O m. The house, with its two south-facing wings, is so orientated that all the outside cages get as much sunlight as possible. The visitor, on entering, passes a glass cage for parrots and the meat preparation room (copied from Frankfurt Zoo); then, through a large sheet of glass, he can see the central tropical hall, planted with jungle vege- tation and containing free-flying birds of the most diverse species, and Indian fruit bats, Pteroprrs g igatitciis.

Each wing contains seven cage-units, each of which consists of an inside den, an outside enclosure and an isolation den (based on the Bade system). The dens and enclosures are

connected by a passageway so that it is possible to move the animals without having to disturb them too much. Restraint cages make it possible for sick animals to be handled quickly. Outside, the enclosures are separated from each other by groups of shrubs; inside, by sheets of glass so that there is no ugly alignment of cages and the visitor is always presented with a new impression. Glass-fronted cages are stocked with many plants and are lit naturally from overhead by means of piacryl domes.

The tropical hall in the middle of the budding covers 1,100 sq. m. and encloses a space of 13,000 cu. m. Its greatest height is 16 m. Mist sprays provide light rain for the plants. The vertical walls are glazed with thermoglass. Visitors are allowed to enter the hall. Two pools of water contain Victoria cruriana, water-lilies, Lotirs and Papyrus.

At the north end of the surrounding walk there are large rock halls, separated from the public by wide moats. I h e West Hall is occu- pied by a group of lions and the East Hall by tigers. When the thunderous roaring of the lions resoimds or the tigers are swimming, the effect in these imposing rock halls is most im- pressive. The granite rocks were designed by the sculptor, Walter Paul1 and they make a magnificent stage-like setting for the lions and tigers. Behind the rock halls there are indi- vidual feeding dens.

Between the rock halls, outside the house, there are two open enclosures, also separated from the visitors by moats. These are for the lions and tigers.

In the northern part of the surrounding walk it is possible to climb up to half the height of the hall and see, in the distance, the area whtre we plan to have the enclosures for the African grassland animals. At the northern ends of the walk there are mosaic pools for veil-tailzd goldfish.

In the basement the technical equipment for heating the building is housed: this includes gas-powered emergency heating, ventilation and humidity equipment. Two independent ventilation plants change the air five times every hour and a temperate atmosphere is

maintained throughout the year. The rock halls have their own air intake and extraction system. Here, 19,3W cu. m. ofair are changed every hour. The hot air system of heating in tine tropical hall, used particularly in the winter, works with only a low speed of air movement out of consideration for the ani- mals and plants. For cooling the building on hot summer days, a special air conditioning plant has been installed next to the Alfred Brehm House; it can take care of the tropical hall with an output of 330,000 k.cal/h. The air of the tropical hall is also changed five times

an hour. In summer it has a humidity of go per cent. To improve the growth of the plants, a ground dampening system has been installed. In the normal way, the Alfred Brehm House is heated by the central heating station for the zoo.

The building was named in honour of Dr Alfred Brehm, the zoologist, author and B e r h zoo expert, famous for his popular Tierkben. His statue is in the entrance hall of the new house.

The feline carnivores (whose place of origin are known in each case) are kept and bred in

Figure (I). Ground plan of the Alfred Brehm House at East Berlin Zoo. H. Dafhe. I Outside enclosure 2 Insideden 3 Keepers’ passage 4 Glasscage 5 Publicwalk 6 Tropical hall

7 Cages for small cats 8 Entrance g Meat preparation room 10 Keepers’ rooms I I Goldfish pools 12 13 Inner enclosure

Rock enclosure inside the house

F i p e (2). Cross-section of the Alfred Brehm House at East Berlin Zoo (seep. 23 I for key). H. Daflie.

racial groups, e.g. Siberian, Sunda, Bengal and South Chmese tigers, and Chmese, Viet- namese and Indian leopards. Some species of smaller cats, such as the Golden cat, F&.c tcrnrninrki, ocelot, Felis p a r d a h , and Leopard cat, Felix berignlensis, are housed in sinall glass cages along the southern front of the house, while animals such as marmosets, humming- birds, giant snakes, iguanid lizards and tropical butterflies are exhrbited in glass-fronted cages.

In the year since it was opened the new building has completely come up to all our expectations. We have so far bred several leopards, Leopard cats, bats, and almost all the bird species edubited in it.

As far as we know, the Alfred Brehm House is the largest animal house ever built in any zoo in the world.

N E W M O N K E Y HOUSE AT F R A N K F U R T ZOO

by Cliristoph Scherprier Scientific Assistant,

Zoologischer Garten Frankfurt/Main, Germany

I N September 1962 the Monkey House, the second largest buildmg to be constructed on a new part of Frankfurt Zoo, was opened to the public. It has enabled the zoo to carry on its old tradition of primate-keeping by providing separate houses for monkeys and apes.

The new monkey enclosure covers an area of about 2,500 sq. m. and consists of two elongated buildings joined by a low cross- section. The ground plan, a distorted H,

allows all the outside cages on the south- southeast side to receive the same amount of s d g h t , without the visitor seeing a long, dreary row of cages, Along three of the walls at the ends of the two buildings there are cir- cular outside enclosures. The public area inside the budding has a flat roof, whde the cages have a glass span roof with large sheets of glass and ventilation flaps, set without putty. In this way, the animal rooms receive more light than the public rooms do. The outside of the budding is covered with stone slabs of grey shell limestone. As the result, maintenance work on the faGade is avoided for long periods and the outside surfaces are always Clean.

The outside enclosures have a surface area of 3yo sq. m. One of these is in the form of a high sandstone crag of large irregularly shaped slabs and boulders. Crevices, niches and over- hanging rocks provide the animals with pro- tection from wind and rain. The ciiclosure is occupied by Rhesus monkeys, Mncacn rnulatfa. The numerous hiding places help animals of lower rank to get out of sight of dominant animals. Large, dead trees provide oppor- tunities for climbing games. The ground is a strip of concrete with a recess measuring about I 5 sq. m., fded with sand in which the monkeys can dig and scrape. The enclosure is surrounded by a ditch 3.5 m. deep sur- mounted by a parapet covered with the same natural stone as the house. The minimum distance between the parapet and the inside enclosure is 3.8 ni. In the bottom of the ditch there is 10-60 cm. watcr and some blocks of natural stone from which the monkeys can easily drink.