Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
within its environment. Coe suggests that animals should even be
allowed—by use of motion detectors or other means—to control the
lights, fans, or temperature of their zoo environments.“Why can't the mon-
keys run the monkey house?” he asks, pointing out that primates in the
wild have learned to meet their needs in a much more complex and dan-
gerous habitats. He further explains:
To use these enrichment features requires some training and a real integration of
those features into the immersion design. Activity-based design and management is
the integration of all these things into one whole. Instead of us designing the
exhibit, and then once it's open, the staff designing the husbandry system, we're say-
ing they should all be designed together.Training, enrichment, presentation, educa-
tion and entertainment, habitat and horticulture, all gets done together.
Coe sees many challenges for the next generation of zoo designers and
believes that creative responses can be cultivated and channeled. Most
important are exposure to varied, powerful experiences, to a range of cul-
tures and ideas, and to people working in different disciplines. Creativity
and honest dissent should be rewarded, and respect for others should be
instilled by example. Aspiring designers must learn to really listen to clients
and to work with their feedback. Not least important is a willingness to
remain anonymous. “Remember,” Coe cautions, “it's their project, not
yours.”
If there is a guiding principle at CLR, it is that design should be
innovative:
As a firm, we try to emphasize innovation on every project. . . . But the subject of
that innovation is driven by the client, not by us. In other words, when we start,
we'll suggest all kinds of different ideas and new directions. If any of them find fer-
tile ground, that's the one we'll pursue.
The firm is not proprietary about new ideas or technological improve-
ments it develops. It provides a service, not a product. “We try to encour-
age our people to understand that the creative muscle gets better with use,
that no idea is so precious you can't give it away and come up with a bet-
ter one tomorrow. If you start defending it, maybe that's when you set up
blocks,” Coe says.“The universe is full of ideas. All you have to do is access
them.” Coe elaborated on his work process in a poem titled “The Journey”:
