Abby Staniland

The Zoo of Time

Abby Staniland is a final year Landscape Architecture student. Her project, The Zoo of Time, reimagines Dudley Zoo and Castle.

Give us a brief overview of your project

My project re-imagines the existing Dudley Zoo & Castle which currently features layers of architectural history such as the 11^th century castle and Grade 2 listed zoo enclosures from the 1930s. Through accessible landscape design, I aim to re-invent the narrative and aims of the zoo, leading visitors on a 'journey through time' as they travel from present to past through a timeline of extinct native species. The zoo includes animals that are native to the UK, however, are now extinct nationally; with the goal of raising awareness to re-introduce these animals back into the UK wild.

Why did you choose this concept?

I chose this concept having worked at Dudley Zoo for over three years before moving into practice, as well as it being a huge part of my childhood.

It is hard to ignore the potential the site has given its rich history and uniqueness. I'm a huge advocate for (moral) zoos and the education they provide for the natural world, specifically to those who may not have opportunity to travel and see wild exotic animals. However, I wanted to consider what a zoo would look like in a 100 years' time - where hopefully animals would not need to be in captivity in order to conserve them. Which eventually led to this reflection of the past, present and future of Dudley Zoo and how they could be incorporated into one streamlined site narrative - recognising the past to form a better future.  I show this concept using planting and material design, topography and animal species.

What processes have you been using?

From concept to final outcome - a majority of my work is digitally or physically hand-drawn ; I embrace the child-like quality of it, given a large number of zoo visitors are schools/families. If not beginning directly in Procreate, I usually start my drawings off of an Adobe Photoshop / Illustrator base. In my model-making I aimed to recreate the same hand-made feel as my drawings - using wooden beads and blocks with cut coloured paper. I find layering a complex concept underneath playfulness to be a fun juxtaposition. Using animation to explain my project concept has been really exciting too.

What do you hope to achieve with your project?

I think the line of questioning 'What should a zoo look like in a 100 years' time?' is an interesting discussion that I would love to raise with any zoo or wildlife director. It's fantastic how far our relationship with zoos have changed since 1900s, design for the future should be foremost. Also, I hope to share my passion for zoos generally, I think it is a big moral grey area for a lot of people, I like to think we are working towards a society where animals don't need to be in captivity to be protected, in the meantime it's vital to understand and protect their native ecosystems, which zoo's help fund. In future, I would love to work towards providing adequate ecological education to children in urban areas who may not have much interaction with the natural world, as passion starts with education.

How has your course helped you to prepare for working on your project?

My tutors have been incredibly helpful supporting me and pushing me creatively. I was fortunate to receive a permanent job position at Fira Landscape following a work-experience placement with the university, the skills I have learnt being in practice have been vital to completing this project.