Bird Paradise

RUCHA KHANDERIA (RK): We’ve seen a significant shift in what visitors seek at wildlife parks. They see zoos as centres for education, conservation, and ethical animal care. At the same time, they look for authentic and meaningful experiences with which they can educate their children.

Visitors want to understand the broader context of species, their natural habitats, their roles, and the threats they face in the wild. Educational programmes and behind-the-scenes tours resonate these days because they show how some of the animals are looked after and treated. Hands-on activities where visitors can get involved are also increasingly popular.

For Bird Paradise, we had a unique opportunity to engage experts from various fields and completely reimagine what a modern bird park could be. We had the opportunity to do away with the traditional taxonomy-based displays and focus on holistic environmental education instead.

SUEN WEE KWOK (WK): As architects and urban planners, there was another impetus for us to consider. Nowadays, visitors expect a lot more spaces for public engagement, even before they enter the attraction. We needed to provide non-ticketed areas where the public can enjoy nature.

RK: At Bird Paradise, each habitat is inspired by real-world biomes, and visitors feel like they are stepping into real ecosystems where the birds live, not walking past enclosures. Every aviary or habitat was themed after a particular place. We conducted research all over the world, studying the micro-environments of various places that we would begin to recreate. When people visit Bird Paradise, they feel as though they are part of the animals’ environments. That was the broad vision of the park.

WK: We worked closely with the attraction designers because they are the experts in curating the bird habitats. But from the point of view of the visitor’s experience, the immediacy of up-close observations of the species was very important. Most zoos, as we found through our studies, have a fair amount of distance between the exhibit and the visitor. What is unique about Bird Paradise, and in fact, all of Singapore’s wildlife parks, is that you can come up quite close and observe the species at close proximity. You are immersed in their world; it’s not them in your world.

RK: Another changing expectation of visitors is inclusivity. People expect places to cater to diverse backgrounds and abilities. So our pathways, for example, are designed to meet universal design standards. There are gentle gradients and stopping areas that allow for engagement with the birds.

RK: We conducted an extensive EIA for the entire Mandai precinct. A key finding was that there were a lot of pathways for native birds as well as small fauna throughout the precinct. A key gesture of the overall Mandai master plan was therefore to connect the northern and southern parts of the CCNR with a bridge above a live road, allowing native animals to cross safely.

In the area where this wildlife bridge lands within the Bird Paradise site, we left a buffer zone that’s 45-to-50 m wide. That’s about 3 ha of land that we set aside as a nature buffer in direct response to the EIA in terms of maintaining animal connectivity.

We preserved large clusters of trees and, because we are very close to the reservoir, the drainage networks were designed to ensure no wastewater from our operations flowed into Upper Seletar Reservoir and the CCNR. We also limited our hours of construction to 8am to 6pm.

WK: The EIA was commissioned in 2014, prior to our engagement. At that time, very few EIAs were being done. This was the first to be made public in Singapore. We took a few guiding principles from it.

Firstly, we wanted to stitch all the green areas on the Bird Paradise site together because they were quite fragmented. There was a disused orchid garden and villages. We placed the more intensively built areas, such as the back-of-house zones and the penguin exhibit, on the areas that had already seen the most human impact. Overall, we aimed for a minimal building footprint.

Secondly, we wanted to integrate the attractions into the natural surroundings, meaning that the clearance of vegetation should be minimised to accomodate our development.

Thirdly, given the number of attractions in the entire Mandai master plan, we wanted to decentralise the crowd to avoid congestion and stress on the environment.

RK: While designing the habitats, we tried to snake the walkways around the existing clusters of trees so we were able to retain them. In some places, we went for suspension bridges because we wanted to bring people closer to the large trees, but avoid impact on the undergrowth. Throughout the park, the common areas that are outside the aviaries are designed to be eco-corridors for native birds and small fauna.

One of our key achievements was retaining one of the largest trees on the site – a Ficus benjamina with a 20-metre-wide canopy. The birds in the Rwanda Nyungwe Forest Heart of Africa aviary use it for nesting, refuge, and as a food source.

RK: Experience is one of the most powerful tools for education because people engage in an emotional way, not just in an intellectual way. When visitors walk through a misty rainforest or a wetland, they see birds in their natural context and hear the sounds of the environment. This creates visceral memories and emotional connections that inspire curiosity and sentiment. It can bring people into the larger story of conservation.

Learning can happen through different layers. We have made sure that each landscape environment feels authentic and allows opportunities for kids to engage in tactile play. We also curated elements for visitor discovery. For example, in the Hong Leong Foundation Crimson Wetlands we recreated the kind of clay wall where scarlet macaws typically feed in nature. They actually lack certain minerals in their diet, which they get from the clay. When visitors see lots of scarlet macaws feeding on that clay wall, it creates curiosity and inspires learning.

In a traditional zoo, the entry and exit points of the aviaries would typically be mesh double-door portals. At Bird Paradise, we created learning hubs at these transition points. They are designed as small buildings that contain showcases about various bird features – for example, the diversity of feathers and eggs, nest architecture, birdsong melodies, and courtships. They also provide respite from the hot sun.

WK: While you are immersed in these habitats and enjoying the exhibits, you do not realise that the comfort level is very, very high. As you walk through them, you feel cool, you feel comfortable, you are able to walk free of hazards, and the information provided along the way is curated to a very high degree. Nothing is left to chance. We call this “the design of the invisible hand”. Bird Paradise is successful in that regard.

RK: In addition to RSP, we had a suite of consultants alongside our in-house Attractions Development team. There was a very extensive engagement process with our consultants. During the design phase, we held a lot of workshops and design reviews. RSP, being the lead architect, was a key player.

We then went into a process of engagement with all the different operations teams, our Board of Directors, and various stakeholder agencies. The stakeholder engagement process was also very extensive because we needed to ensure that the vision for Bird Paradise integrated all of the associated real-world challenges and opportunities. There were a lot of expectations to meet.

WK: But everything began with the master planning. Mandai is very big, so choosing the correct site was the first challenge. That’s where the experts from the Attractions Development team were very important, because they knew what kinds of environments their bird species needed.

Insights from the ecologists and landscape architects were layered on to determine what could be retained or supplemented on the site.

Developing the design from the architecture and master planning point of view, we worked out the spatial demands of the human visitors, the vehicular needs, the human circulation, the back of house, fire safety, universal access, and construction feasibility, among others. The engineers worked on the structure, water and electrical supply, air conditioning, security monitoring, and even the animal CCTV surveillance. The lighting design was planned so the entire park dims at night and the animals can rest.

All these considerations were worked in and layered onto the attractions planned out by the Bird Paradise team. In terms of the type of project and the number of consultants, this was a once in a lifetime experience. Not many design consultants out there can claim that they have done a bird park. It was a very niche project.

RK: The ultimate masters were always the EIA and our environmental commitments. It was not an easy process to integrate all the various threads. Sometimes there were differing views, and the design needed to “arbitrate” in a way.

RK: The design allows for a high standard of animal care and safety. The large aviaries enable the free movement of the birds inside those environments. That’s one aspect. Species compatibility is another. But it’s fundamental to provide as natural of an environment as possible.

The Ocean Network Express Penguin Cove is one of the largest saltwater exhibits in the world. In other penguin exhibits, you typically see penguins on land, but they are actually seabirds. They spend most of their life underwater, so it was very important for us to provide a large saltwater environment. Not only is it the right environment for them, but it also shows visitors how they behave underwater. On land they waddle, but in the water they are so graceful! It’s almost like they are flying.

The lighting was designed to simulate the Subantarctic. Maintaining the correct photoperiod helps the penguins with their breeding cycle. Through talking with the operators of other high-quality penguin exhibits around the world, we discovered that there is a certain spectrum of amber light that penguins perceive as dark that would still allow us to carry out our operations.

The photoperiod has been very carefully designed; it allows for sunrise, high noon, and sunset conditions throughout the day, and even features a projection of the Aurora Australis at certain times of the year. It’s been successful. We welcomed the first few babies to the penguin colony recently. The birds are feeding and interacting well – these are all indicators of wellbeing.

WK: Animals will behave like animals. They won’t land in front of you just so you can take a picture. Everything, therefore, had to be considered carefully. The amount of care and consideration required when designing for animals is, I would say, two or three times higher than when designing for humans. People will know how to use a space or structure that you design for them. But you can’t tell a bird how to use a verandah or perch. Birds are a very exclusive client.

WK: When we led the P*DA jury through their site visit, everybody quickly began to convey the sense of wonder that you often see in tourists. I think that’s the magic of Bird Paradise. It’s as though you are having a childlike experience again. That’s the most surprising thing I have noticed about the visitors. They slow down and engage with the spaces deeply. They observe the birds’ behaviours, and they spend longer than we anticipated. It tells us that when we design in a way that invites exploration and wonder, people respond with curiosity and care.

RK: It’s very gratifying to see that the design has been well received. I think we are most proud of how it integrates animal welfare, guest experience, and ecological responsibility. Design, science, and nature have come together to tell the larger story about wildlife conservation.

WK: From the architectural point of view, I’m proud of the quiet intent behind the design and the way it influences without being seen. As you walk through the park as a visitor, you can enjoy it without knowing all the hard work that has gone on behind the scenes.