Tag Archives: artificial rock

Disguising ugly buildings as rock formations pt 2

Main Contractor : Houthoff Zoo Design

Further on from my last post, here are some images from the completed Colobus monkey ‘rock’ house at Rotterdam Zoo. We have built a kopje rock inspired boulderscape around three sides of the structure and managed to totally hide the square dimensions of the building. Inside, the zoo building is a fully functional home for Colobus monkeys.

Kopje rock formations are found in the Serengeti of Kenya and Tanzania and  can be thought of as islands on the African plain. They are havens for wildlife as they offer protection from the searing sun and offer ‘look outs’ for mammals such as cats and monkeys.

We hope we have made an authentic looking kopje outcrop and at the same time beautified an otherwise boring looking zoo building.

artificial boulders

artificial boulders

artificial boulders

artificial boulders

artificial boulders

Disguising ugly buildings as rock formations.

Here is a great idea:

Build a fairly cheap but effective zoo building and then turn it into a huge pile of kopje rock.

These are some shots from a current Houthoff Zoo Design project. We are wrapping this green zoo building in fake rock so it will totally blend in with the rest of the African scene in which it stands. There are other kopje rock formations nearby and also a giant baobab tree which we completed last year.

The building we are transforming will be a totally functional house for servals and colobus monkeys.

See how this project turned out by clicking here.

kopje rock armature

Steelwork for kopje rock.

zoo building

Bare side of building about to be transformed.

Ken bending steel