News
Timber Construction Award North Rhine Westphalia: Roof Construction of the new Elephant Park highly appreciated
The roof construction of the new Elephant Park in the Cologne Zoo has received the Timber Construction Award of North Rhine Westphalia on 23 March 2006. The new Elephant Park, where up to 20 elephants can live and breed, has been opened in August 2004, and it is interesting to note that its wooden roof construction spans an area of 3.000 m2.
The architects Oxen, Römer & Partners from Cologne have designed this stunning new habitat where visitors can now experience the elephants in a quite new dimension. Being in charge with the structural engineering, Derix Laminated Timber from Niederkrüchten has supplied the building material for this interesting project, and Amman from Weilheim-Bannholz has been in charge with the construction of the roof. Although the jury in general has expressed some doubts concerning the idea of keeping wild animals in a confined area, they highly appreciated the new Elephant Park as a successful combination of architectural expertise and sophisticated structural engineering. And thanks to the natural building material it has been possible to create an elephant enclosure, which comes as close to a natural habitat as possible.
