We’d like to revisit a project first published last year, a renovation of the zoological park in Vincennes, France.  The zoo’s landscapes are designed by TN PLUS Landscape Architects, its buildings by Parisian architects, Beckmann N’Thepe.  Partly run on solar power, the complex encompasses six “biozones,” attempting to replicate the savannah, equatorial African rainforests, Patagonia, French Guiana, Madagascar, and Europe.  The concept was sold as an “ambassador” for conservation, with it’s primary mission to describe conservation efforts of these habitats in their native locations.  The team had two zoo specialists, Jean-Mark Lernould, former director of Mulhouse Zoo, and chairman of CEPA, an organization for the protection of endangered species, and Monika Fiby, a zoo consultant, zoo designer, and project manager of the ZooLex Zoo Design Organization from Austria.

The teams participating were required to include specialists in the fields of landscape architecture, architecture, zoology, urbanism, tourism, scenography, green building, and engineering.  The original zoo was opened in 1934 on 14.5 acres in the park of Bois de Vincennes.  Its landmark is an artificial rock of 67 meters - “le grand rocher.”  Architect Letrosne was stronly influenced by Hagenbeck’s zoo in Hamburg, when he designed “a theater stage in concrete, a stylish landscape, wild and spectacular, but overtly artificial.”  Estimates for the renovation are around 135 million Euro.  in October 2005, prime minister Dominque Villepin listed the zoo among 35 projects the government would achieve by engaging a public/private partnership.