The
Client Interview:
Where the Wild Things Are
This
is a great excercise to get students thinking about the similarities
and differences between the needs
of animals and people. Use it after a trip to the zoo, or as
an introduction to designing a habitat.
The issues
that architects must consider in designing a zoo are numerous. First,
they need to think about the needs of two sets of clients: the wide
variety of animals who live in the zoo, and the many kinds of people
who visit them.
The animals
come from all corners of the earth and are of all ages. The same goes
for the human visitors, especially at a site that is heavily visited,
such as the Zoological Society
of Philadelphia or the Central
Park Wildlife Center in Manhattan.
This
list illustrates the links between the two worlds. Because
we humans are animals, essentially we need the same things that "they"
do. Go through the list and determine which items must be considered
when architects design a shelter for humans, animals, or both.
Have
your class interview each other or pretend to interview an animal
that they may have seen on a zoo visit in order to bring a sense of
each others' environmental needs and preferences before beginning
to design.
| FOR
ANIMALS |
|
FOR
PEOPLE |
|
SHELTER |
|
|
FOOD |
|
|
WATER |
|
|
NATURAL
LIGHT |
|
|
SHADE |
|
|
TRAFFIC/
CIRCULATION |
|
|
HANDICAPPED
ACCESS |
|
|
OPEN
SPACE |
|
|
INTIMATE
SPACE |
|
|
COMMUNALITY
(GROUP) |
|
|
FAMILY |
|
|
PRIVACY |
|
|
COLOR |
|
|
TEXTURE |
|
|
COMFORT |
|
|
THIRST |
|
|
FATIGUE |
|
|
REST |
|
|
EXERCISE |
|
|
PLANTS |
|
|
TREES |
|
|
RAIN |
|
|
ROOF LEVEL |
|
|
NOISE
|
|
|
SILENCE |
|
|
CLEANLINESS |
|
|
SIZE/SCALE |
|
|
TIME |
|
|
YOUTH |
|
|
OLD
AGE |
|
--From
the Architecture in Education Summer Institute for Teachers, based
on information from the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York.
