McLaren Vale & Fleurieu Visitor Centre

Monarto Zoo Visitor Centre

Gum Park Homestead Redevelopment
Innes National Park
Visitor Centre

Adelaide Townhouse
Marion Cultural Centre
Living Kaurna Cultural Centre
McCormick Centre for the Environment
Woodcroft College Gymnasium

MADEC Mildura
Seymour College
Performing Arts Centre
Woodcroft College Admin Building

Monarto Zoo Visitor Centre, 1995 - 1997 Monarto Zoological Park Visitor Centre is a central hub for visitors to the park, which is the wildlife and endangered species breeding arm of the Royal Zoological Society of South Australia. Visitors to Monarto experience the park via safari bus tours throughout a range of wildlife habitats, and guided walking tours in the Mallee Woodland. The building is an orientation point for visitors, providing tour bookings and amenities including a cafe, shop and toilets. The shop is a significant income generator for the Park selling a range of environmental products and souvenirs.  The Visitor Centre also houses the administration for the Park.The project took as its starting point the environment, as the majority of endangered species are threatened with extinction due to human intervention in the environment. The Visitor Centre hovers above its site enabling the undisturbed flow of water patterns and wildlife. Broad verandahs provide shade and evoke the rural building traditions of Monarto, with the colour scheme evoking summer bleached grasses and limestone, blending in with the landscape. The building employed a number of environmental strategies to minimise environmental impact, including: • Use of recycled timber for the structural framing, cladding, flooring and joinery. • Development of a suspended floor above natural ground level to minimise impact to the site. • Development of subsidence cooling towers, in association with architect Emilis Prelgauskas, as a low energy alternative to air conditioning. • Collection of all rainwater to eliminate use of River Murray mains supply. • On site treatment of waste water. • Promotion of natural ventilation through extensive use of glass louvres on both internal and external walls. • Design of wet radiator solar heating system for future installation. • Provision for future roof-mounted photo-voltaic power cells. This project won three Awards of Merit in the Royal Australian Institute of Architects’ (SA Chapter) including Energy and Environment and is very popular as a conference and meeting venue.

Copyright © 2011 Phillips/Pilkington Architects Pty Ltd