At the beginning of April, two new bird aviaries opened at Leipzig Zoo: ‘Amazonia’ and ‘Loriversum’. The special feature is that the birds fly freely around and visitors can experience the animals up close. We were commissioned to develop several educational exhibits on selected features of the birds, as well as variable enclosure signage. Due to the wide variety of changing bird species, the focus is on systems that are easy to swap out and expand.
For ‘Amazonia’, we are guided by the already established flair of the South America themed area. Rusty metal surfaces hint at the once vibrant shades of green and orange. This will result in an interactive educational exhibit featuring a movable macaw beak model, a vitrine for presenting the species with interchangeable magnetic elements, and an information board. In addition, we are designing two rotating enclosure signs for up to 16 bird species.
The ‘Loriversum’ is part of a new Asian-themed experience world. We are drawing inspiration from the colour palette of Asia and experimenting with bamboo and metal as materials. In front of the aviary, we are creating an educational station featuring a fascinating video of a lory’s brush-like tongue. Inside the aviary, we are installing a glass showcase with magnetic elements to show the birds, as well as a media station providing information on the enclosure signs. An additional information board is dedicated to the bird trade and species protection.
The realisation of this project places particular challenges on materials and construction. All the exhibits are located outdoors and therefore need to be permanently weather-resistant. At the same time, the birds are free to fly around the aviary – and even land on the exhibits themselves. Accordingly, we are designing all elements to be particularly robust and ‘macaw-proof’. Indeed, a macaw is capable of loosening screws with its beak.
