Royal Elephant Pavilion Competition / Visiondivision
Visiondivision shared with us their design for the Royal Elephant Pavilion which was rewarded an honorable mention in a not so ordinary competition. Recently, the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustav received two female elephants from the King and Queen of Thailand as a way to express their gratitude for the creation of a Buddhist pavilion in the north of Sweden. Stemming from this event, a competition was created to design the facilities for the two elephants.
More about the Elephant Pavilion after the break.
“We decided to locate the elephant house on the Royal family’s castle at an island outside Stockholm. It…seemed logical to locate the two elephants in a more populated town and also more respectful to the King of Thailand to have his gift in a Royal environment,” explained the architects.
The project takes into consideration the differing treatment of elephants by the two cultures. Whereas in Thailand, the elephants are free to live outdoors, in Sweden, animals are often kept in more confined “traditional elephant houses.” Upon investigating these differences, Visiondivison decided the elephants would experience a little of each culture. While the elephants can roam the King’s island, similar to their freedom in their native country, the animals will also experience the modern amenities of a pavilion/winter shelter. The complex will include specially designed rubber pits to provide sleeping areas, a mud hole to roll around in, a pool with a shower, and a tactile rubber wall to scratch on.
A ramp takes the elephants down to their winter palace, while a walk up roof will provide viewing areas for spectators. The animals will be close by their new owner providing a constant reminder of the new friendship between the countries.
Type: Competition
Status: Special honorable mention
Birth: 2005
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Credits: Visiondivision through Anders Berensson & Ulf Mejergren
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7 comments »
Where is the architecture?
That first rendering has nothing to do with the King’s palace island – and there is an elephant walking through the snow on the left side of the image, I’m not sure Thai elephants are really adapted to the harsh Swedish winters.
>Lucas, probably the elephant are returning to her winter shelter after some roaming on the island.
I like this project, free thinking and concepts like this is more interesting to read about than yet another stiff-already-done-and-outdated project with some glass system from Germany.
But I agree that there could be some more images and drawings of the actual building, maybe the competition was just conceptual.
thanks
wow, that is.. crazy .. but .. at the same time very compelling and different. nice work
>Lucas, the elephant is probably returning to her winter palace. :)
Great treatment of the animals, I think that this is the projects strongest feature, that they’re actually roaming free on the island and can choose when they want to be in their house. Zoologic enclosures nowadays are not very inspiring.
Nice that one can see the elephants from the roof too, a fun and different way to approach the animals.
Just love it! the idea is simple but genius and that diagram is pure art!
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