VitrA Çağdaş Mimarlık Dizisi - Arkitera

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Developed based on the concept of a “modern zoo”, İzmir Natural Wildlife Park aims to
contribute to the preservation of nature, creating awareness especially through childoriented
education programs. The park is designed to create a distinct habitat for each
animal along the circulation path of the visitors and define a separate preparatory entrance
zone for each habitat. The objective of this approach was to ensure that guests
can observe and communicate with the animals in a more tranquil environment. The
project aims to create spaces where animals live in an environment similar to their wild
habitat. In an attempt to eliminate visual separators such as cages, wire fences and barriers,
natural boundaries such as water and trenches were chosen as separators.
As the dichotomy of nature versus culture constitutes the basis of Western thought,
the culturalist approach of the 19 th century has converted nature into an object on exhibit.
With the activation of the disciplinary mechanisms between power, control and
contemplation, the concept of the “modern zoo” has been formulated. In this conception,
wild animals are reduced to objects to be tamed and the exhibition of animals
has been institutionalized. While the idea of the “modern zoo” is based on the wildlife
exhibited within a tamed nature and the subject observing from a safe point outside,
these positions have been reversed later with the appearance of Nature Parks.
The first zoo in Turkey, İzmir Zoo opened inside Kültürpark in 1937 and has developed
over time to expand to a total area of 18,000 m 2 , resisting pressure for further expansion.
Wild animals were exhibited in cramped spaces behind wire cages that prevent visual
connection, inside the collection-type shelters that are not reminiscent of their natural
habitats. In search for a new living space at international standards, the 425,000 m 2 area
at Sasalı region at the northwestern edge of İzmir was determined as the location for
the Natural Wildlife Park to be constructed. The proximity of the site to the existing bird
sanctuary, the ease of transportation to the city center and the fact that the area does
not have any existing developed environment nearby were the influential factors in the
selection of the site. Adaptive reuse projects were developed for the four existing buildings
on the site which were also included in the project.
In order to ensure that each species gets a chance to live in an environment similar
to their natural habitats large habitat areas were formed as individual sections, connected
by varying combinations of circulation paths used by the guests. Aiming to
achieve a close visual contact between the guests and the animals, the habitat areas
are confined using natural barriers such as water and ditches rather than cages or wires.
A special section called the Children’s Zoo has been specificly organized to give children
a chance to touch and feed the animals living in this section.
With its total collection of more than 1,200 animals of approximately 120 species, İzmir
Natural Wildlife Park, one of the few places one can encounter wildlife within the metropolitan
world of present day, has also taken on the challenge of becoming an education
center. The Natural Wildlife Park in İzmir can be considered one of the most successful
applications of the concept in Turkey, with its design approach that reveals the
changing notions of recreation.
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