Modernization of the Strasbourg zoo but the debate on social assistance continues
Guillaume Aubry, Cyril Gauthier and Yves Pasq are the three founding partners of Freaks Architecture, who were entrusted with the renovation of the small Strasbourg zoo.
“It’s an interesting order, because the end users will be both animals and humans,” says Cyril Gauthier.
The three architects have just celebrated the 11th anniversary of their company. They come from all over France. “Yves was trained in Rennes, Guillaume in Lille and I in Montpellier, but we all met at the Ecole d’Architecture de La Villette in Paris. We traveled a lot as part of our training. The others went to Japan, and I went to San Francisco, and then me and Yves were in Berlin and Guillaume went to China.
We started working together as Freaks on a few small projects in 2007, but we officially created Freaks in 2010 when we won the Albums of Young Architects and Landscapers (AJAP).
The team has just completed the construction and fitting out of the reception area at the Zoo de l’Orangerie in Strasbourg. “We have created a new building to house the reception, plus a shop and a classroom. The idea was to be able to see outdoor spaces, and to give more space to the animals. The stables and barn were already there, and we decided to make the paddocks easy to move around so that they could be changed according to the seasons and the animals on the farm. We also wanted to preserve the wild storks that nest on the roof, and made sure not to disturb them during the works.
It’s part of an ongoing commitment by city hall to relocate alien species living in the park’s small, outdated and heavily overcrowded zoo, which has come under increasing criticism from animal rights groups. Jeanne Barseghian, the Ecologist Party mayorhas made this issue a manifesto promise and intends to keep its promise.
She insists that nature reserves and safari parks be found to harvest the 120 lynxes, monkeys, wallabies, exotic birds and other small animals from the mini-zoo. She wants to see the small concrete pens and pens demolished to create a mini-farm where children can learn about pets.
The mini-farm will be free, whereas the old zoo was paid for. There are also plans to set up a center to care for injured or sick wild animals.
the town hall owns the premises, but the zoo is operated and the animals belong to an association that does not agree with the town hall at all.
For their part, they say that the zoo should be renovated but that the animals should remain where they are until the end of their lives. They insist there is no cruelty in keeping animals in such cramped conditions.
Although they have been asked to run the children’s farm and rescue centre, they say that will never happen and have so far refused to give up a single animal.
the town hall insists that the animals be rehoused and gradually reduces the subsidy he gives to the zoo to pay for its upkeep. In 2019 the grant was €270,000, in 2020 it was €250,000 and it will continuously decrease.
the town hall says it is willing to fund the cost of transporting the animals to new homes, but that if the association insists on keeping them where they are, it will have to collect the money independently.
The horns are locked, but the renovation and construction of the mini-farm will continue.
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