- Area: 1375 m²
- Year: 2009
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Photographs:Eva Serrats + Wenzel
Text description provided by the architects. The palm grove in the Parc de la Ciutadella is a small 1,500 sqm garden made up of a wide collection of palm trees of different heights and a thick tropical bush vegetation. It has always been used as an habitat for the macaws. Its remote location and the noisy and colorful presence of the birds turn it into an exotic oasis inside the park and a unique place inside the city.
The design of the cage was developed following the instructions of the Zoo's technicians. The total surface of each unit is 21.5 sqm, from which 14.40 sqm can be seen by the general public. The rest is divided in 5.20 sqm of ‚sleeping area‚ and 4.90 sqm of maintenance corridor. The main structure of the cage is made up with several leaning metal tubes that bend and close on the top like a metal wheat sheaf.
The project focused on the cage design, which is complex enough to arrange the garden through the path of the visitor by its repetition.
The main criterion was arranging the cages in an apparently random way making them always offer different perspectives, creating a system than can be perceived as a picturesque system lacking of any rule and continuously surprising. Its immersion into the palm grove looks for coexistence, respecting its hidden nature and increasing its exoticism.
