Chimps Breeding Colony The Gorilla House

TQ 2883 NW CITY OF WESTMINSTER ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS 6/3 REGENT'S PARK NW1 14.9.70 The Gorilla House (Chimps Breeding Colony) - I Gorilla House. 1932 - 33, by Lubetkin and Tecton with Ove Arup, their first significant commission and their first zoo building for the Zoological Society. Reinforced 4" concrete,steel cage bars, light, insulated panel, revolving screen and sliding glass inner cage windows; asphalted flat roof. Circular plan form governs design which consists of drum with an open cage occupying half the circle and permanent cage with clerestory light to the other half, with entrance and exit swept wings integral to the composition. In winter,the revolving insulated screen closes the open cage, provides sheltered viewing space for the public and allows climatic control with sliding glass windows rising in the dividing wall and air conditioning simulating Congo conditions. The revolving insulated panel screen(housed in summer in the permanent half of the drum) pivots centrally upon ball bearings in a solid steel column and is supported at the outer edge by rollers moving along a steel channel on the upper perimeter. The permanent cage has a small basin and fountain. Seminal Modern Movement building in Britain and the first built application of the highly technical, quasi scientific Tecton research approach to a complex brief producing an uncompromisingly modern design distinguished by a dynamic compositional rhythm over-riding functionalism. Lubetkin and Tecton, Architecture and Social Commitment; Peter Coe and Malcolm Reading.

Listing NGR: TQ2809483571