The Taronga Conservation Society Australia has unveiled designs for a new Australian native wildlife exhibit and overnight accommodation facilities for Taronga Zoo.
The proposed Taronga Wildlife Retreat will include five new accommodation pods, a guest lodge and a restaurant designed by Cox Architecture, surrounding a proposed new exhibit designed by Green and Dale Associates.
The new precinct will be located at the eastern edge of the zoo, adjacent to the existing Taronga Centre. A new four-storey structure housing kitchen and dining facilities will be added to the Taronga Centre.
The proposed buildings are designed to recede into the landscape, putting priority on the Australian wildlife exhibit. The guest lodge will be a single-storey circular structure incorporating the base of an existing pavilion that was once a fountain.
The accommodation pods, which range from two to four storeys in height and contain sixty-two rooms, will be clad in reconstituted timber and perforated metal blades. To camouflage the buildings, native planted green screens will cover the northern facades of the pods and wrap over the roofs.
Proposed Taronga Wildlife Retreat by Cox Architecture and Green and Dale Associates.
The Australian wildlife exhibit is designed to stimulate visitor interest in Australia’s biodiversity. It will feature an Australian rainforest landscape with platypus pools, a freshwater eel display, an aviary, a disguised koala enclosure and animal encounters with echidnas, potoroos, bandicoots, wallabies, red kangaroos and Tasmanian devils.
The project is part of a $150 million centenary masterplan to redevelop the zoo. Other projects in the pipeline include a new Sumatran tiger experience designed by Lahznimmo and the Taronga Institute of Science and Learning by NBRS and Partners. Taronga Zoo will celebrate its one-hundredth anniversary in October 2016.
The designs for the Taronga Wildlife Retreat are currently on exhibition for public feedback until 23 May 2016. Submissions can be made here.
The Taronga Wildlife Retreat is an addition to the zoo’s existing overnight accommodation offerings, which include the Roar and Snore experience Taronga Zoo and the Zoofari Lodge at Taronga Western Plains Zoo.
