Yes, you heard it right people: A new rainforest will soon be growing in Northern England. How is this possible you ask? Human ingenuity of course…combined with a dash of marketing, capitalism, and of course; a gigantic dome.
By 2014, the Chester Zoo in Northern England will be home to the ‘Heart of Africa’; an enormous 115 ft high 172,000 square foot biodome which will house, among other things, an authentic growing African Congolese rain forest complete with every flora and fauna you could imagine inhabiting such an environment. There will be a band of gorillas, a large troop of chimpanzees, okapi (rare giraffe-like creatures), birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, invertebrates and of course an interactive water ride that will take guests throughout this wondrous manmade jungle. Themed retail and dining facilities will also be incorporated (after all Disneyworld doesn’t make its money by kids taking pictures with Mickey Mouse).
The ‘Heart of Africa’ project is but only a piece of the much grander ‘Natural Vision’ redevelopment plan for Chester Zoo that is projected to be totally complete in 15 years. In the near term though, the dome/amusement park/zoological conservation project should be open in 4 years. The dome itself was designed by Proctor and Matthews Architects in conjunction with the ginormous environmental engineering consulting firm AECOM and Barton Willmore. The signature undulating dome is achieved by using ETFE, a highly corrosive resistant and strong form of plastic, clad free forms as the roof. It will, in fact, be the largest of it’s kind in the world. Most recently ETFE was used to ’skin’ the Olympic Aquatic Center in Beijing a.k.a. the ‘Water Cube’ for the 2008 Olympics.
The Good: With rain forests being cut down faster than you can say “Save the Rainforest”, preservation of that habitat and it’s species is critical; in any form. The visibility and accessibility of the facility will help better educate the public on some of the issues facing the rain forests of the world. Beneficial research.
The Bad: The unavoidable commercialization and ’slickness’ of the exhibit will dilute the real environmental issues at hand and may encourage complacency about the status quo concerning the real rainforest in Congo. Northern England isn’t exactly tropical and 172,000 square feet doesn’t heat itself. So you can probably put two and two together here yourself when it comes to the energy consumption of this facility.
The Bottom-Line: A good idea with tangible benefits, but the scale and ulterior motives for the project seem to somewhat undermine its environmental objectives.
UPDATE: Tom from Proctor and Matthews, the architects working on the Heart of Africa project, was kind enough to forward me information that I had not been privy to prior to writing this post. It seems a lot of my environmental concerns surrounding the project, mostly due to a lack of information, have now been satisfactorily resolved for the most part. He writes:
Whilst you make valid points regarding the materials used to construct the dome there is a balance to be met regarding the global issues of sustaining the natural habitat of the Congo (and of course other areas at risk such as coral reefs, low lying islands). The aim is to raise awareness of these issues to attempt to halt the destruction. Chester Zoo has a globally respected conservation agenda that this project is intending to contribute to. The building is to reuse its substantial animal waste to maintain it’s temperature – assisted by on and off show areas that create natural ‘climate locks’ to increase the thermal efficiency of the building, coupled with a landscape design that utilised topography beneath the roof to maximise solar gain. Our response was to be as follows:
As the architects of this proposal our ambition is for the zoo to self-generate its fuel from both biomass via woodchip and animal waste in a bio digester.
Our understanding is that the project is a direct funding point for assisting, both research and education projects for animals and habitats at home in the UK, but more importantly in one of our planets threatened habitats – the Congo rainforest. Profits and donations will ultimately fund animal habitat programs in the rainforest belt which will contribute more extensively to the issue of living on a sustainable planet.
OUR SUSTAINABILITY RATING:
YOUR SUSTAINABILITY RATING:
Related Posts:
Follow us on Twitter and join us on Facebook. While you're at it, subscribe to our feed as well!
Discussion
View Comments for “A Tropical Rainforest Grows…In Northern England?”