Tropical Bird House At Dudley Zoo

PLAN: The plan is based on two concentric circles, the smaller describing the external wall of the former bird house, the larger the balcony which surrounds it. An apron for the entrance extends to the west, flanked by flights of steps giving access to the lower level.

MATERIALS: Reinforced concrete, with extensive glazing to the roof.

EXTERIOR: The circular building is of two storeys, the higher at ground level when approached from the south, and consists of an upper drum-shaped structure, finished with a moulded grid pattern, with a surrounding cantilevered balcony which has three shelters created from floating slab roofs, under which is a smaller drum. The upper drum, which formerly housed semi-tropical birds, and the balcony, is accessed via a bridge, under a roof slab with a deeply convex front edge, extending to either side as a beam. The double entrance doorway is set back slightly within the entrance. The reinforced concrete roof, in the form of a partial inverted flat cone carried on plain columns, is structurally separate from the circular external wall, and the two are united only by the double-glazed roof light which bridges the gap in an unbroken circle.

The balcony has the common parapet used for all the larger buildings designed by Tecton for the site; the low wall has its coping raised on elliptical-section steel struts, giving adults a raised surface on which to lean, and allowing children to view the animals without being lifted up.

Under the balcony, a smaller central drum below the bird house formerly housed the transformer station and heating plant. The whole sits on a circular platform with an external wall faced in rubble stone.

INTERIOR: The interior is no longer used for the keeping of birds. The enclosures which lined the circular wall of the building have been removed, as has the wire-mesh aviary which formed the central enclosure, though the structural elements which supported them, and hid the heating pipes from view, are still in situ.