Book part:

Landscape Habitat Immersion. Die Konstruktion immersiver Zoolandschaften im Kontext des US-amerikanischen Environmentalism

Creating a new master plan for Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo in 1976, the landscape architects of Jones & Jones introduced the term landscape habitat immersion as a design element to simulate nature. Meanwhile, immersion exhibits spread globally as substantial elements of «New Zoos». The idea was that visitors should perceive enclosures as coherent landscaped space without any signs of civilization. Based on environmental psychology, the firm’s design techniques fostered a detailed layout to guide the visitor’s motion and sight. Additionally, the designers strived for sitespecific translations of physiognomic characteristics such as vegetation or soil to mediate the quality of the represented landscape. Thereby, the boundaries between animal and visitor, between viewing space and enclosure, would be blurred, at least for the humans. Taking Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo as a case study, this paper seeks to examine the underlying ideas of constructing and perceiving «immersive landscapes» within the context of US environmentalism. Design that is both ecologically functional and aesthetic is especially essential for holistic approaches to landscape architecture. The relevant semiotic analysis is based on the architects’ subjective, cognitive and emotional perception and interpretation. Thus, such semiotic programs help to translate landscapes into holistic scenographies and form the guidelines by which to construct the specific atmospheres of zoological exhibits.