HASSELL bags Tbilisi zoo project

The practice will mastermind the relocation of the existing city centre zoo to a new zoological and recreation complex next to the inland lake known as the Tbilisi Sea.

The project includes an entrance hub, boulevard, a playground and café, inner zoo and an ‘outer open range’ zoo as well as woodland areas set within the Soviet era arboretum known as Dendropark National Park.

Drawn up with Arup’s Dublin office, HASSELL’s scheme also features a recreation area on the shore of the lake with an aquarium and dive school.

The scheme is the latest in a series of zoological commissions for the burgeoning behemoth which has already completed Adelaide Zoo, Taronga Zoo in Sydney and Werribee Open Range in Victoria.

Jon Hazelwood, head of landscape architecture at HASSELL’s London Studio, said: ‘We believe in the collaboration of landscape architecture, masterplanning and architectural design and the new Tbilisi Zoo is a fantastic opportunity to put this philosophy into practice by developing a new zoo destination from first principles.

‘Our team has been inspired by the beauty of the Georgian landscape to create a scheme that works in harmony with the environment, respects the animals that will inhabit it and allows people to observe them in a space akin to their natural habitat.’

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