In 2018 I was invited by Perth Zoo in Western Australia to help them prepare their own in-house master plan. During a week of intensive workshops, we developed a governing vision and conceptual plans for the entire zoo’s redevelopment.

Above are my bubble diagrams recording important interrelationships among major zoo features and stories. These came together in my hand-drawn overall development concept, resulting in the summary document above developed by Perth Zoo staff. Major proposed innovations include animal rotations using campus-wide animal trail systems, advancing innovations made by the Philadelphia Zoo.

As a state-owned facility, Perth Zoo applied for state development aid, which required them to undertake a full master development plan based upon my sketches, which was implemented very well, and with considerable improvement by the Perth office of Hassell Architects, landscape Architects and planners, completed in 2019.

Lessons learned: good collaborative work can be undertaken relatively quickly when planning is well coordinated by an open-minded client with strong in-house leadership. Good vision and concept plans can be refined and improved by a more comprehensive master planning process for public works for which considerable justification is required to support funding.