Foster + Partners

Elephant House

ELEPHANT HOUSE

Foster + Partners

Elephant House
© Nigel Young

ARCHITECTS
Foster + Partners

CLIENT
Foundation Realdania for Copenhagen Zoo

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
Stig L Andersson Architects

COST CONSULTANT
Davis Langdon LLP

SERVICES
Rambøll with Buro Happold

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS
Rambøll with Buro Happold

PHOTGORAPHS
Nigel Young, Richard Davies

AREA
8800.0 m²

YEAR
2008

LOCATION
Copenhagen, Denmark

CATEGORY
Zoo, Extension

Elephant House
© Nigel Young

Text description provided by architect.

Set within a historic royal park, adjacent to the Frederiksberg Palace, Copenhagen Zoo is among the oldest zoos in Europe and one of Denmark’s most popular cultural institutions, with 1.2 million visitors a year. 

Among the Zoo’s most visited inhabitants are the Indian elephants. The starting point for the design of this new Elephant House was to provide these magnificent animals with a healthy, stimulating environment and in the process to create easily accessible spaces from which visitors can see and enjoy them.

Elephant House
© Nigel Young
Elephant House
© Nigel Young

Extensive research into elephants’ social patterns provided design cues. The tendency for bull elephants in the wild to roam away from the herd suggested a plan organised around two separate enclosures. 

These enclosures are dug into the sloping site, both to minimise the building’s physical impact in the landscape and to optimise its passive thermal performance.

Elephant House
© Nigel Young
Elephant House
© Nigel Young

Covered with glazed domes, the spaces maintain a strong visual connection with the sky and changing patterns of daylight. 

From the entrance square visitors enter the foyer and are lead by ramps down into an educational space, with views into the enclosures along the way. 

Elephant House
© Nigel Young
Elephant House
© Nigel Young

At the end of this route, broad public terraces offer splendid views across the herd paddock. Barriers between the animals and visitors are discreet, and the paddock walls are concealed in a linear pool so that the visitor encounters the elephants as another ‘surprise’ in the landscape of the park.

Significantly, the building sets new zoological standards in terms of the elephants’ physical well-being. 

Elephant House
© Nigel Young
Elephant House
© Richard Davies

The main enclosure enables the six cows and calves to congregate and sleep together, as they would in the wild, while the floors are heated to keep them dry and thus maintain the health of the animals’ feet.

Other aspects of the design resulted from research into the elephants’ natural habitat.

Elephant House
© Nigel Young
Elephant House
© Nigel Young

The paddocks recreate a section of dry riverbed as found at the edge of the rainforest – a favourite haunt of Asian elephants.

With its mud holes, pools and shading objects, it is a place where the animals are able to play and interact freely.

Elephant House
Elephant House
© Nigel Young
Elephant House
© Nigel Young


Elephant House
© Nigel Young
Elephant House
© Nigel Young
Elephant House
© Richard Davies
Elephant House
© Richard Davies

Elephant House
© Richard Davies
Elephant House
© Richard Davies
Elephant House
© Richard Davies
Elephant House
© Richard Davies
Elephant House
© Nigel Young
Elephant House
© Richard Davies

Elephant House
© Nigel Young
Elephant House
© Richard Davies
Elephant House
© Nigel Young
Elephant House
© Richard Davies
Elephant House
© Richard Davies


Elephant House
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Elephant House
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Elephant House
Site Plan
Elephant House
Floor Plan


Elephant House
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Elephant House
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Elephant House
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Elephant House
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Elephant House
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Foster + Partners
T +44 20 77380455
Foster + Partners
Riverside, 22 Hester Rd, London SW11 4AN, United Kingdom