Client: Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg, Amt Stuttgart
Design team: Mikolajczyk-Kessler-Kirsten und Herrmann+Bosch (architects), Knippers Helbig (structure), BAnTec (HVAC), Lysann Schmidt (landscape architect)
My role: Landscape architecture in cooperation with MKK
Location: Stuttgart, Germany
Date: 2018-24
Surface: 23.771 m²
The zoological and botanical garden Wilhelma borders directly on the Rosensteinpark in Stuttgart. The “elephant world” is therefore developed as a park landscape preserving the historic tree groups and with the necessary respect for the quality of the adjacent English landscape park. In addition to tree conservation, three other principles have been developed in the competition to achieve the spaciousness and the forest character of the subtropical habitat of elephants: soil modeling, landscape scenery, vegetation. Height modeling enhances the impression of depth and makes it easier to experience the different materials (sand, clay rocks) and plants on the light slopes. The landscape elements such as hills, plant islands, groups of rocks and water surfaces are arranged in irregular bands as backdrops to the visitor’s gaze. In order to allow the immersion in the habitat of the elephant, the density and structure of the subtropical forest is replicated due to the use of a variety of leaf textures, vegetation layers and water surfaces.